§ Mr. J. E. B. Hillasked the Secretary of State for War what progress has been made in the development of Army aviation which he has announced and what effect this will have on the Glider Pilot Regiment.
§ Mr. John HareIn March, I said that the Army would take over responsibility for its own light aircraft and helicopters. Arrangements have now been made.
The duties to be undertaken include reconnaissance, artillery observation, traffic control in operational conditions, communications, some casualty collection and the carriage of urgently needed light stores.
These duties will be given to a separate Army formation, and a new corps, to be called the Army Air Corps, will be formed on 1st September, 1957. It will be a comparatively small body, largely specialists and technicians, attached from other Arms and specially trained.
The basic unit of the Army Air Corps will be the flight, one of which would normally be part of an Army brigade group, but this organisation will be flexible and may be modified with experience and according to local requirements, especially overseas. Flights will normally specialise in either reconnaissance or liaison duties.
First line and second line servicing will for the first time be done by the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, but we shall continue to rely upon the Royal Air Force for major repairs and overhauls and for the provisioning of aircraft and 117W specialist equipment, as well as for the training of selected members of R.E.M E. to tit them for their new duties. I am most grateful to my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Air, for this continued help.
A number of the pilots now flying military light aircraft are members of the Glider Pilot Regiment. They assumed this duty in 1950 when the use of gliders was discontinued. Now that the character of Army aviation is changing, it is appropriate to absorb the Glider Pilot Regiment into the new corps and the regiment itself will be disbanded on 1st September. This is a step we must take with very much regret and with the deepest gratitude for the services given by this fine regiment during the war in Sicily, Normandy. Holland and on the Rhine.
The traditions of the Glider Pilot Regiment, together with those of the air observation post flights which have hitherto been manned with conspicuous success by the Royal Artillery but are now to be absorbed into the new organisation, will give the best possible foundation for the Army Air Corps.