THERE is no timetable or known cost for installing a collision warning system on Typhoons that could have prevented a crash which claimed the lives of three airmen, a Coalition Government minister has admitted.

Defence Equipment Minister Philip Dunne told MPs yesterday the system, which air accident investigators said last week could have prevented the accident, was currently being tested.

He said more modern Typhoon jets do not currently have a planned solution as he warned about the significant challenges in designing a system for such powerful, high-speed aircraft.

He insisted training and other forms of risk management were crucial to ensuring safety, and that the RAF was satisfied risk to life was "both tolerable and as low as practicably possible".

The SNP's defence spokesman Angus Robertson said negligent decisions may have led to the deaths of Flight Lieutenant Hywel Poole, 28, Flight Lieutenant Adam Sanders, 27, and Squadron Leader Samuel Bailey, 36, on July 3, 2012 over the Moray Firth.