§ Mr. Trotterasked the Secretary of State for Defence, further to his answer to the hon. Member for Macclesfield (Mr. Winterton) of 23rd November 1977, that one of the factors in deciding that the Coastguarder aircraft would be no cheaper than the Nimrod per square mile of sea searched on fishery protection duties, why it was necessary to purchase new Coastguarders; whether the Coast-guarder is basically an HS748 aircraft as is the Andover; how many Andovers are stored out of use by the Royal Air Force; what are the crew sizes for a Nimrod and a Coastguarder; and what are the hourly operating costs for a Nimrod and an Andover.
§ Mr. WellbelovedThe prototype Coast-guarder, which was introduced into the civil inventory this year, is a version of the HS748, optimised for the offshore surveillance role. Like other versions of the HS748, the Coastguarder design is derived from the same basic airframe as the much older Andover C-1. They are,738W however, very different types of aircraft and one cannot be converted into the other. In particular, the Andover is a heavier aircraft and can carry less fuel, so that its endurance—a very significant point in the offshore rôle—is only about half that of the Coastguarder. As for numbers of Ministry of Defence Andovers, I have nothing to add to my Answer of 29th November to the hon. Member—[Vol. 940, c. 183–4.] The crew of a RAF Nimrod is normally 12; that of the Coastguarder would depend on the use which was being made of the aircraft. On the question of hourly operating costs, as I explained to the hon. Member for Macclesfield on 23rd November—[Vol. 939, c. 812–3]—these are not an adequate basis for comparative costings for operations of this kind.