§ Mr. Trotterasked the Secretary of State for Defence how many Andover aircraft are (a) in store and (b) in service with the Royal Air Force; and whether he has considered the possibility of using some of these aircraft for oilfield and fishery protection work after conversion to a coastguard version.
§ Mr. WellbelovedThe Ministry of Defence has 25 Andover aircraft. They are all either in Service use or required to support in-Service establishments. The Andover was amongst those aircraft considered in 1975 for use on offshore tasks, but it was not chosen for a number
Total outflow in year ended 30th September Percentage of average strength in year ending 30th September 1975 1976 1977 1975 1976 1977 All Services: Males … … 46,298 42,364 43,598 14.2 13.2 13.9 Females … … 4,980 4,608 4,038 34.3 31.2 27.8 Royal Navy: Males … … 9,417 7,470 7,064 14.5 11.8 11.7 Females … … 974 982 896 26.5 25.5 22.7 Royal Marines … 1,529 1,185 1,012 19.2 15.2 13.2 Army: Males … … 25,709 23,718 26,702 15.8 14.4 16.4 Females … … 2,167 2,071 1,770 37.9 35.2 30.7 Royal Air Force: Males … … 9,643 9,991 8,820 10.7 11.7 10.7 Females … … 1,839 1,555 1,372 35.9 30.8 28.5
§ Mr. Litterickasked the Secretary of State for Defence how many young Service men have requested to be released from military service on reaching the age of 18 years; and how many have been released and how many refused release, during each of the last three complete years for which figures are available.
§ Dr. GilbertThere is no right of release at age 18, but all Service men who
1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 Entrants Discharges Entrants Discharges Entrants Discharges Royal Navy … 5,062 1,418 5,282 1,229 4,917 815 Royal Marines … 888 399 626 242 485 135 Army … 11,199 2,640 13,870 2,782 12,133 2,560 Royal Air Force … 2,733 412 2,567 336 2,415 318
§ Mr. Litterickasked the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how many applications for discharge from military service on compassionate grounds have been refused during each of the last three years for which figures are available;
184Wof reasons. In particular, the cost of conversion would have been considerable, but even so the aircraft would still have fallen far short of the Nimrod in this role in such important matters as length of time on patrol, the proportion of total flying time spent on task, and speed of reaction. Moreover, an Andover solution would have given us considerably less operational flexibility.