§ Mr. SwayneTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence on how many occasions the Army used(a) civilian contractors and (b) the Omani armed forces for the purpose of transporting tanks in connection with exercise Swift Sword II. [17076]
§ Mr. IngramNo civilian contractors were used to transport Challenger 2 tanks during the exercise.
Saif Sareea was a combined UK/Omani exercise, designed to practice and improve the interoperability of each nations' armed forces. Working closely together with the Omanis was therefore, by design, a major feature of the exercise. A total of 30 tanks and other heavy armoured vehicles were transported by the Omanis to facilitate their recovery from the exercise area to the port of departure from Oman.
§ Mr. SwayneTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many tank transporters were unserviceable during exercise Swift Sword II; and if he will make a statement. [17075]
§ Mr. IngramThirty tank transporters were deployed on exercise Saif Sareea. The harsh desert environment and high tempo of activity during the exercise made this a very demanding test. Inevitably, routine maintenance and servicing led to occasional periods of non-availability of individual tank transporters. Overall, however, their average availability during the exercise was in excess of 85 per cent.
Given the known limitations of the current fleet of tank transporters and the testing conditions in which the exercise was conducted, this was an entirely satisfactory figure. Notwithstanding, we are now in the final states of negotiations for a replacement and are confident that this will be in service by late 2003.