Draft record of the 48th meeting of the Standing Armaments Committee held on 21 September 1961 (Paris, 16 October 1961)

Text
On 16 October 1961, the draft record of the 50th meeting of the Standing Armaments Committee (SAC) sets out the discussions between the delegates on various proposals concerning the future activities of the SAC and the framework in which they should take place. The discussions also focus on the production of weapons to overcome the problem of low-level defence in the European theatre. The United Kingdom representative expresses his government’s interest in the British ‘PT.428’ project for low-altitude surface-to-air guided weapons, as opposed to the American solution, which the United Kingdom does not believe meets operational requirements. The British experts suggest that, in addition to the UK/US bilateral talks currently being held, consultations could also take place within Western European Union under the aegis of the SAC with the aim of formulating a joint plan for European cooperation in this area. The British authorities do not believe that the other subjects suggested by General Brisac, Head of the International Secretariat of the SAC, can usefully be studied in WEU without duplicating the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) activities. The French believe that these proposals should be studied by the military authorities so as to establish military requirements and that if any omissions are revealed they can be usefully studied at a European level. The German representative considers that these studies cannot be accomplished in WEU since they have already been started in NATO.

Source and copyright

Source: Western European Union. Standing Armaments Committee Draft Record of the 48 th meeting of the Standing Armaments Committee held at the 21st September 1961. Paris: 16.10.1961. SAC(61)R/48. pp.1-8.

Archives nationales de Luxembourg (ANLux). http://anlux.lu/. Western European Union Archives. Armament Bodies. CPA/SAC. Comité permanent des armements. File CPA-069. Volume 1/1.

Copyright: (c) WEU Secretariat General - Secrétariat Général UEO

This document is also available in…

The PDF content cannot be displayed in the browser. To view the content, please install
Download Content