§ Mr. Trotterasked the Secretary of State for Defence what improvements are to be made in air defence surface-to-air missile cover; whether additional stations will be defended with Rapier missiles; and whether he will consider forming Royal Auxiliary Air Force Regiment squadrons to man Rapiers.
§ Mr. BlakerThe deployment of Rapier in Germany is enabling us to bring back Bloodhound units for the defence of the United Kingdom. There are at present no plans to increase the number of Royal Air Force Rapier squadrons, but the re-equipment of existing units with Blindfire is now nearly complete. Rapier units are also being acquired by the United States Air Force for the defence of its bases in this country. We are considering whether our own Rapier squadrons could be partially manned with Royal Auxiliary Air Force personnel. If my hon. Friend also has in mind the air defence of 1(BR) Corps, he will see from paragraph 18 of Cmnd. 8288 that we intend greatly to strengthen battle group air defences by equipping three batteries with the tracked version of the Rapier missile system.