§ Mr. Gerald HowarthTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many hours the lease contract provided for the Royal Air Force to operate fleet of C17s in each year; and how many flying hours the fleet flew in each six monthly period since it entered service with the Royal Air Force. [188462]
1764WS
§ Mr. IngramThe lease contract for the RAF's four C-17 aircraft does not restrict the number of flying hours. However, the support arrangements were initially based on an assumed annual fleet usage rate of 3,000 hours; this has been increased to 5,800 hours per annum in response to operational demands.
The C-17 fleet entered Royal Air Force service in September 2001. Since that time, the fleet has flown in excess of 17,000 hours, broken down as follows:
Flying hours September 2001 to February 2002 2,159 March 2002 to August 2002 3,089 September 2002 to February 2003 2,374 March 2003 to August 2003 3,586 September 2003 to February 2004 2,788 March 2004 to August 2004 3,073
§ Mr. Gerald HowarthTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the total cost, including the lease, support, manpower and fuel, of operating the fleet of leased C17s was for each six monthly period since it entered service with the Royal Air Force; and what the budgeted cost of each six monthly period was when the lease contract was agreed. [188466]
§ Mr. IngramThe following information on the lease and support costs is taken from the Major Project Report (MPR). Information about the lease contract is not recorded historically on a six monthly basis:
£million 2001–02 88 2002–03 104 2003–04 102 Over the same period, the total manpower and fuel costs to operate and support the fleet are 21 million and 31 million respectively, broken down as follows:
£million Manpower Fuel September 2001 to February 2002 3.4 3.5 March 2002 to August 2002 3.5 5.2 September 2002 to February 2003 3.5 4.2 March 2003 to August 2003 3.6 7 September 2003 to February 2004 3.9 5.2 March 2004 to August 2004 3.9 6.6 I am withholding details of the lease costs and underlying aircraft price in accordance with Exemption 13 of the Code Practice on Access to Government Information as they are commercially sensitive.