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Unmanned Air Vehicles

Volume 477: debated on Tuesday 17 June 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many Predator unmanned aerial vehicles the armed forces have; and how many have been (a) used in recent operations and (b) shot down. (209653)

The Ministry of Defence has procured three Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as Predator B. Reaper operations began in Afghanistan in October 2007 and capability continues to be built up. None have been shot down, but one was lost in April 2008 as the result of a forced landing. A replacement will be delivered in due course. We do not comment on the exact numbers of platforms in use on operations at any particular time.