To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans his Department has for the disposal of its stock of Vector armoured vehicles; and how many vehicles he expects to donate to Iraq following the withdrawal of British forces from that country. (274743)

There are no plans to gift any Vector vehicles to Iraq. The future role of the Vector Light Protected Patrol Vehicle when it is withdrawn from operations in Afghanistan is under review.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many undelivered Vector armoured vehicles his Department is contractually obliged to purchase; at what cost such purchases will be made; and what plans his Department has for the deployment or disposal of those vehicles. (274747)

The Ministry of Defence is contracted to procure an additional 20 Vector, at a total cost of £4.43 million, excluding VAT. At present the planned Out of Service date for Vector is 2015, and plans for the future role of Vector following its withdrawal from Afghanistan are still under review.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how many (a) Mastiff and (b) Ridgback armoured vehicles have been (i) ordered for and (ii) delivered to UK Land Command; (274970)

The first tranche of 108 Mastiff Protected Patrol Vehicles (PPVs) were delivered to HQ Land Forces by the end of 2007. A second tranche of 174 Mastiff PPVs have been ordered and to date 82 have been issued to HQ Land Forces. It is anticipated that this order will be completed by the end of September 2009.

In addition, 24 Mastiff PPVs have been ordered as part of the Talisman project. It is currently planned that they will be delivered by the end of this year.

157 Ridgback Urban Protected Patrol Vehicles have been ordered and to date, 37 have been issued to HQ Land Forces.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what his most recent assessment is of the performance of Vector armoured vehicles in Afghanistan; and what assessment he has made of the future status of the Vector fleet. (274984)

The evolving nature of the threat means that, following delivery of Mastiff 2, Ridgback and vehicles from the Protected Mobility package announced by the Secretary of State for Defence on 29 October 2008, Official Report, columns 28-30WS, we intend to withdraw the Vector Light Protected Patrol Vehicle from operations in Afghanistan. Vector, which has also faced some reliability issues, will have a phased withdrawal once the better protected vehicles from the Protected Mobility package have been deployed.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the total cost to his Department has been of (a) procuring and (b) maintaining the Vector fleet to date. (274986)

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much the Vector armoured vehicle programme has cost to date. (274742)

The current cost estimate for the Vector vehicle procurement programme is £44.43 million. This excludes costs for trials, MOD manpower costs, and additional items such as ancillaries, fuel, transport costs, ammunition, training and maintenance costs, which are not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many armoured vehicles of each type are (a) available to be deployed immediately, (b) undergoing repair, (c) undergoing Bowman conversion, (d) in storage, (e) being used for training purposes and (f) otherwise assigned. (275042)

The figures requested are provided in the following table as at 8 May 2009:

I am withholding the information requested on the numbers of vehicles available for deployment for operational security reasons.