HC Deb 07 July 1989 vol 156 cc301-2W
Mr. Cohen

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) if he will list those aircraft types that are currently in operational service with the United States Air Force at bases in the United Kingdom which are not classed as combat aircraft;

(2) if he will list those aircraft types that are currently in operational service with the United States Air Force at bases in the United Kingdom which are classed as combat aircraft;

(3) if he will list those aircraft types that are currently in operational service with the Royal Air Force which are classed as combat aircraft;

(4) what assessment he has made of the effect on the Royal Air Force of the proposed reductions in the number of land-based combat aircraft in the Atlantic-to-Urals zone announced at the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit of 29–30 May if dual-capable aircraft were not included;

(5) what assessment he has made of the effect on the Royal Air Force and the Army Air Corps of the proposed reductions in the numbers of helicopters and land-based combat aircraft in the Atlantic-to-Urals zone announced at the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit of 29–30 May.

Mr. Archie Hamilton

Details of numbers and types of combat aircraft belonging to NATO and Warsaw pact forces will be found on paper 27–28 of NATO's publication "Conventional Forces in Europe: The Facts", a copy of which is in the Library of the House. NATO is now in the process of refining this information for use in the conventional armed forces in Europe (CFE) negotiations in Vienna. It is too early to say what might be the effect on the United Kingdom's armed forces of any reductions in combat aircraft and helicopters agreed at the CFE talks. The national contributions towards such reductions, in these as in other areas, would be a matter for collective NATO decisions.

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