§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how many practice bombs have been dropped at the Wiley Sike range in each year since 1977; and if he will list the permitted types of weaponry at the Wiley Sike range;
(2) if he will list the locations of each of the remote threat emitter sites at RAF Spadeadam, the date on which each became operational and the number of days on which each has been active in each year since becoming operational;
(3) if he will list the amounts spent on capital investment in buildings and equipment at RAF Spadeadam in each year since 1977; and if he will specify what amounts were paid from (a) United Kingdom funds, (b) United States air force funds and (c) NATO funds;
(4) within what radius of RAF Spadeadam the dropping of chaff is permitted; and what are the restrictions on the amount of chaff dropped by each aircraft;
(5) how many electronic training runs were carried out by aircraft at RAF Spadeadam in each year since 1977;
(6) what communications he has received from telecommunications operators and customers concerning interference caused by electronic emissions from RAF Spadeadam;
(7) how many Skyguard radars are in service at RAF Spadeadam; what are the roles of each; and if he will specify the circumstances in which these radars are deployed beyond the boundaries of the RAF Spadeadam range;
(8) if he will list the radio frequency ranges on which RAF Spadeadam is permitted to transmit; what changes have taken place in these permitted ranges since 1985; and what plans he has for further changes;
(9) if he will list the number of occasions on which RAF Spadeadam has been activated later than 6 pm in each year since 1988.
§ Mr. HanleyI will write to the hon. Member.
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§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans he has for the purchase of equipment to provide simulation of non-Soviet threats at RAF Spadeadam.
§ Mr. AitkenMy Department has no such plans at present.
§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans he has for alterations to the boundaries of the tactical training areas.
§ Mr. HanleyThere are no plans to alter the boundaries of the tactical training areas used for operational low flying. From October however, we intend to dispense with the administrative separation of the Borders tactical training area into east and west sections. This will simplify the management of the low-flying system and will mean that statistics on movements in the Borders tactical training area will be directly comparable with those for the northern Scotland and central Wales tactical training areas. At present the division of the Borders area can lead to a single sortie generating more than one movement in central records.