My object first of all is to illustrate the background pressures which generate a need for an aircraft such as the Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA) and the various national gyrations which have pursued it through recent years. In describing past technical activities, I necessarily deal more with the UK contribution, rather than with Messerschmitt- Bolkow and Fiat, not with any parochial intention but because time is limited and I am naturally rather more familiar with that element from BAC work covering the Anglo-French aeroplane with Dassault and the UK studies which were intermediate between co-operation with the French and with our German and Italian colleagues.