Military Aircraft

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many aircraft there were in the RAF in 1997, broken down by aircraft type on the same basis as the answer provided on military aircraft on 9 October 2007, Official Report, column 509W. (162799)

The numbers of aircraft that were planned to be in service with the RAF service on 31 March 1997 are contained in the following table:

Aircraft type	Fleet numbers
Tornado GR	142
Tornado F3	111
Harrier	70
Nimrod	29
Tristar	9
VC10	¹26
Sentry	7
Hercules	²56
Islander	2
BAe 146	3
BAe 125	³8
Sea King	25
Dominie	10
Hawk	100
Tucano	73
Vigilant	53
Jaguar	54
Bulldog	116
Canberra	9
Jetstream	10
Janus	2
Valiant	4
Viking	82
Chinook	34
Puma	37
Sea King	25
Gazelle	21
Wessex	50
¹ Actual numbers were 27. ² Actual numbers were 55. ³ Actual numbers were six. The planned figure does not reflect the retirement of two BAe 125 aircraft.

Volume 467: debated on Thursday 15 November 2007