§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will take steps to provide adequate low-level cover for Royal Air Force bases in the West of the United Kingdom, and to upgrade the protection provided for the key Royal Air Force and United States air force bases in the Midlands and East Anglia by replacing or restoring the Bloodhound systems.
§ Mr. MulleyThe air defence of Royal Air Force bases in the West of the United Kingdom cannot be considered in isolation from that of the remainder of the country. For the United Kingdom as a whole, the range of ground and airborne radar sensors, fighters and surface-to-air missiles—SAM—provide defences in depth against the assessed threat. The Government are committed to a substantial programme of improvements in all aspects of these defences and further improvements are being studied to continue to match the increasing threat, including the threat to Western airfields.
The Bloodhound deployment in eastern England will be extended as the squadron presently deployed in Germany returns to the United Kingdom in 1980. We have a programme to extend the useful operational life of the Bloodhound for some time to come, and a number of possible Bloodhound replacement systems are being studied.