Mr. Antony said also three companies had responded to the request for proposal for the attack helicopter contract, of which only the Apache cleared the final field evaluation trials.
That was good enough for Mr. Cuomo, who had earlier conditioned hundreds of millions of dollars in state aid on a final agreement on an evaluation system, a threshold not yet crossed.
But even if his success seems inevitable, and it does, there are others close behind who have hardware entering the final stages of testing and evaluation.
After the completion of both programmes, students are required to take a final exam in order to accredit their learning through the System of Evaluation and Certification of Studies.
It added that a full evaluation of the second trial would be carried out before any final decision was made as to the suitability of the vessel to operate from the Port of Dover.