§ Mr. Trotterasked the Secretary of State for Defence when the Phantom aircraft entered service with the Royal Air Force; whether the two Phantom squadrons to be 47W retained instead of being phased out when the Tornado F2 is introduced will be squadrons assigned to SACLANT; and whether there will then be nine United Kingdom-based front line fighter squadrons instead of the present seven.
§ Mr. BlakerThe Phantom first entered service with the Royal Air Force in August 1968 at the operational conversion unit. Our plan to run on two Phantom squadrons will permit a total of nine United Kingdom-based fighter squadrons to be built up. It is too early to say precisely how the additional squadrons will be assigned.