§ Mr. Trippierasked the Secretary of State for Defence what is the estimated shortage of Royal Air Force pilots in the near future and the long term; and how this will affect the readiness of the Royal Air Force to combat attacks, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation airborne early warning system.
§ Mr. PattieThe total shortage of pilots in the Royal Air Force is now about 13 per cent. below the establishment for flying and ground appointments, but NATO-recommended interim aircrew/aircraft ratios continue to be met. It will not affect either the readiness of our air defences, or our contribution to the NATO airborne early warning system, because priority is given to front line squadrons. The shortfall is expected to diminish progressively from 1983 onwards, but the speed of recovery is limited by the time it takes to train a pilot from scratch to front line squadron standard—about 2½ years: by the number of first tour pilots which front line 361W squadrons can accept without diluting experience too much; by the size of the training machine; by the number of pilots that may be withdrawn from operations for flying instruction; and by our recruiting capability.