§ Dr. David ClarkTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many and of what type of aircraft were in his Department's attrition reserve at 1 March in each of the last five years. [21022]
§ Mr. Soames[holding answer 18 March 1996]: The number of aircraft required for attrition purposes is determined at the time of procurement. Once in service, all aircraft in excess of aircraft establishment—AE—are available to meet fleet management and replacement needs. The table gives the number of available airframes in the fleets of each major aircraft type over and above the aircraft establishment at operational—including training—units, at 1 March for the last five years. Significant factors leading to variations in the figures include changes in AE, disposals of surplus aircraft, and the number of aircraft undergoing maintenance or modification programmes:
218W
Aircraft type 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 Royal Air Force Tornado GR 37 65 65 61 60 Tornado F31 60 67 65 63 27 Jaguar2 37 36 36 36 36 Harrier 50 48 44 43 43 Hawk 25 33 35 47 47 Canberra 3 4 4 4 4 Hercules 2 6 6 6 6 Nimrod 6 6 6 6 4 Sentry 1 1 1 1 I VC1O 6 6 6 6 8 TriStar 0 1 1 1 1 Chinook 4 5 5 5 7 Wessex 9 9 9 9 11 Gazelle 7 7 6 6 4 Sea King 3 3 3 3 2 Puma 12 11 11 10 10
Aircraft type 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 Royal Navy Sea Harrier 15 16 17 19 22 Sea King 26 29 30 27 27 Lynx 20 22 27 26 27 Gazelle 7 9 9 9 8 Army Lynx 32 22 24 21 20 Gazelle 23 22 24 24 23 124 surplus Tornado F3 aircraft were leased to the Italian air force in the course of 1995. 2In addition, 46 Jaguar aircraft are kept in long-term storage and as ground instruction aircraft.