To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many times (a) C-17A Globemaster, (b) Hercules LC-130, (c) Tristar and (d) VC-10 aircraft have been cannibalised in the last 12 months. (110376)

The removal of serviceable parts from one aircraft for use on another is a routine and temporary measure to ensure that the maximum number of aircraft are available to the front line.

The number of these instances over the last 12 months (January to December 2006 unless otherwise annotated), by donor aircraft, is given in the following table.