Thermobaric Weapons

Willie Rennie
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many times thermobaric weapons have been used by UK armed forces in each of the last 12 months.

Bill Rammell
[holding answer 23 June 2009]: UK armed forces use variants of the AGM-114N Hellfire missile, which is an enhanced blast weapon, in Afghanistan. The Ministry of Defence does not classify this weapon as thermobaric. It is, however, sometimes referred to as such in the media. The following table provides details of the number of enhanced blast munitions fired on operations over the last 12 months.

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|Number        |
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|June 2008     |5|
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|July 2008     |3|
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|August 2008   |3|
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|September 2008|3|
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|October 2008  |1|
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|November 2008 |2|
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|December 2008 |0|
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|January 2009  |3|
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|February 2009 |4|
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|March 2009    |13|
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|April 2009    |3|
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|May 2009      |3|
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|Total         |43|
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