§ 1973. Mr. Bill WalkerTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will give details of the Royal Air Force assets which are deployed in the air defence of the United Kingdom; and what they were in(a) 1983 and (b)
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonCurrently we have seven Tornado air defence variant squadrons, three Rapier squadrons and one Sentry airborne early warning squadron deployed in the air defence of the United Kingdom. In addition, 50 dual-role Hawk trainer aircraft are available as interceptor day fighters. This compares to a United Kingdom air defence force in 1983 of five Phantom and two Lightning squadrons, one Bloodhound and three Rapier squadrons and one Shackleton airborne early warning squadron. Seventy two dual-role Hawk trainer aircraft were then available as interceptor day fighters. In 1973 we had one Phantom and five Lightning squadrons, one Bloodhound squadron and one Shackleton AEW squadron.