Force Levels in the Middle East (Hansard, 6 April 1998)

§ Lord Gilbert

We remain fully committed to ensuring that Saddam Hussein honours the agreement he made with the UN Secretary General on 23 February, subsequently endorsed by UN Security Council resolution 1154, giving free and unfettered access to UNSCOM and IAEA inspectors. Saddam has complied so far, but access alone is not enough. Saddam has not yet provided the evidence that we need in order to be sure that he has destroyed all his weapons of mass destruction. It is, therefore, too soon either to relax our vigilance or to reduce our military capability in the Gulf.

We have been reviewing the composition of our forces to ensure that we have the best mix for the job. We have decided that, as temperatures in the Gulf increase, we should deploy additional Tornados to replace the Harrier GR7s embarked on HMS 82WA Illustrious, since Tornados are better suited to operations in extreme heat than Harriers operating from aircraft carriers. With the generous agreement of the Kuwaiti Government we will, therefore, be increasing to 12 the number of Tornados based at Ali Al Salem Airbase in the middle of April. HMS Illustrious will then depart from the Gulf. In July she will enter a major refit programme, which will include a number of enhancements to her capability to conduct joint air operations.