§ Mr. Eldon Griffithsasked the Secretary of State for Defence what is the present status of the former British air base at Masirah; and what plans he has for making use of the facilities to deploy Royal Air Force units in the area of the Arabian Sea.
§ Mr. WellbelovedThe former RAF airfield at Masirah was handed over to the Sultan of Oman's Air Force in March 1977. Although we have not based aircraft there since that time, and have no plan to do so, we enjoy close relations with Oman and RAF aircraft regularly make use of Omani airfields for staging purposes.