§ Mr. Sproatasked the Secretary of State for Defence whether all Nimrod aircraft engaged on oil and fishery protection work always carry droppable survival equipment; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. WellbelovedThe Nimrod, because of its speed, requires a specially designed droppable survival equipment, of which sufficient was procured to cover the SAR commitment. Although these holdings were not sufficient to permit offshore patrol flights to carry them on all occasions, the withdrawal of the Nimrod SAR aircraft from Malta has now freed enough of them to permit the equipment to be carried on all sorties, whose primary role is that of offshore patrol.
§ Mr. Sproatasked the Secretary of State for Defence how many hours per week 280W are being devoted by Nimrod aircraft to specifically oil-related protection flying and how many to fishing; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. WellbelovedNimrod aircraft fly about 180 hours per calendar month on the offshore task as a whole. However, both surveillance of fishing activities and of offshore installations can be carried out on a single sortie and in some sea areas concurrently. In consequence, it is not possible to say how many hours per week have been devoted to each task.