§ Mr. KeyTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the cost was to DERA of(a) hiring the tanker aircraft from the RAF and (b) the dumped fuel on Friday 3 November in connection with the typhoon tanking trials at Warton; how many litres of fuel were dumped; and where they were dumped. [139473]
§ Dr. MoonieThere was no cost to DERA for either the aircraft or the fuel. The aircraft was provided as part of Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) and the cost of the fuel will be met by the Defence Procurement Agency (DPA). In all some 40,000 litres of fuel were jettisoned in free airspace over the Irish sea.
§ Mr. KeyTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence for what reason(a) the typhoon tanking trial flight at Warton on Friday 3 November was abandoned and (b) the weather window was lost. [139470]
§ Dr. MoonieStandard pre-flight checks, which identified a number of faults requiring investigation, prevented the Eurofighter development aircraft from taking off at the scheduled time for the tanking trials on 3 November. By the time the faults were rectified the weather conditions, which could affect the sensitive trials instrumentation on the aircraft, were unfavourable and the flight was abandoned. The flight trial was successfully completed a few days later.
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