§ Lord Astor of Heverasked Her Majesty's Government:
When the Apache helicopter will be operational with 16 Air Assault Brigade; in what numbers; and how many Apache pilots have been trained. [HL1394]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Bach)An initial operating capability of four aircraft will be declared at readiness to deploy from August 2004. It is expected that the remainder of the Apache helicopter crews within 16 Air Assault Brigade will have completed their training by late 2007.
Some 25 pilots have already been trained as part of "train the trainers" phase, and a further 24 are currently undergoing training.