§ Mr. HealeyTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans he has to change force levels in the Middle East; and if he will make a statement. [38327]
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§ Mr. George RobertsonWe remain fully committed to ensuring that Saddam Hussein honours the agreement he made with the UN Secretary General on 23 February, subsequently endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 1154, giving free and unfettered access to UNSCOM and IAEA inspectors. Saddam has complied so far, but access alone is not enough. Saddam has not yet provided the evidence we need to be sure that he has destroyed all his weapons of mass destruction. It is therefore too soon to relax our vigilance or reduce our military capability in the Gulf.
We have been reviewing the composition of our forces to ensure we have the best mix for the job and have decided that as temperatures in the Gulf increase we should deploy additional Tornados to replace the Harrier GR7s embarked on HMS Illustrious, since Tornados are better suited to operations in extreme heat than Harriers operating from aircraft carriers. With the generous agreement of the Kuwaiti Government we will therefore be increasing to 12 the number of Tornados based at Ali Al Salem Airbase in the middle of April. HMS Illustrious will then depart the Gulf, prior to entering a major refit programme in July, which will include a number of enhancements to her capability to conduct joint air operations.