§ Mrs. Clwydasked the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his reply,Official Report, 17 May, column 264, how many United States service men stationed in the United Kingdom serve in units which are not formally committed to a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation command; and where those light transport and search and rescue units based in Britain and not committed to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation are based.
§ Mr. LeeAs the hon. Member was told in my earlier answer, virtually all United States forces in the United Kingdom are here in support of NATO. The categories of commitment of individual units are, however, classified. The light transport aircraft and the search and rescue units mentioned in my earlier answer are based at RAF Mildenhall and RAF Woodbridge, respectively. There is a small number of United States personnel engaged in the operation and support of these aircraft, but it is not normally the practice to divulge numbers of personnel engaged on specific operations.