Letter: Fighting MiG fire with MiG fire

Sir: A principal argument currently being used in favour of continuing the European Fighter Aircraft (EFA) project seems to be that, despite the end of the Cold War, we may still find ourselves confronting the latest-version MiGs that Russia will be obliged to sell to Third World countries.

Surely the answer is obvious - scrap the EFA and equip the RAF with MiGs. They will probably be half the cost of aircraft built in high-wage countries; the order will stabilise the Russian economy and in particular stave off the politically dangerous collapse of its military-industrial sector; and it will keep the aircraft out of unstable Third World hands as well.

Rarely is a government presented with a policy opportunity of such universal benefit.

Yours sincerely,

MARTIN SLATER

Oxford

3 July