Exercise Saif Sareea (Hansard, 8 November 2001)

§ Mr. Menzies Campbell
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the type and number of UK armoured vehicles and tanks that were in Oman for Saif Sareea II, stating in each case the percentage of those vehicles that were considered(a) fully serviceable and (b) unserviceable during the exercise; and if he will make a statement. [11768]

§ Mr. Ingram
The types and number of each UK armoured vehicle, including tanks, that were in Oman for Saif Sareea II, are as follows: 65 Challenger 2 Main Battle Tanks; 49 Warrior Infantry Fighting Vehicles; 12 AS90 self propelled artillery; and 269 reconnaissance and other armoured vehicles.
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The serviceability of these vehicles varied through the exercise as they passed through operational and maintenance cycles. The average percentage availability of each armoured vehicle type throughout the main period of the exercise was as follows: Challenger 2 83 per cent.; Warrior 83 per cent.; AS90 71 per cent.; and reconnaissance and other armoured vehicles 80 per cent.
Overall the armoured vehicle fleet, and indeed the rest of the UK military equipment deployed on Saif Sareea, performed very effectively.

§ Mr. Jenkin
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the percentage rate of serviceability of helicopters on exercise Saif Sareea was; what the principal cause of helicopter non-serviceability was; and if he will make a statement. [13293]

§ Mr. Hoon
The average rate of helicopter serviceability achieved during the whole period of Exercise Saif Sareea was 54.5 per cent. The overall serviceability of helicopters on the exercise was affected by the requirement to conduct non-exercise related maintenance on a number of airframes. More generally, Exercise Saif Sareea provided our aviation assets with valuable experience of operating in a demanding desert environment. The impact on overall serviceability was one of a number of key factors. There was no single, principal cause of helicopter unserviceability.

§ Mr. Jenkin
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he expects to publish the conclusions of the evaluation of equipment deployed in Operation Saif Sareea. [13279]

§ Mr. Hoon
The process of evaluating performance during Exercise Saif Sareea and identifying lessons for our future operations and exercises is already under way, and will address equipment serviceability. Much of the information captured in this process will be of an operationally sensitive nature. Accordingly, there are no plans to publish it.