Tim Farron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-02-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) reconnaissance, (b) combat and (c) other missions were flown by RAF aircraft over Iraq in the last 12 months.

Penny Mordaunt

The number of reconnaissance, combat and other missions between 1 February 2015 and 1 February 2016 are detailed in the table below. The majority of aircraft flying missions in Syrian airspace will have flown over Iraqi airspace as well. Reaper, Tornado and Typhoon are multi-role aircraft and as such can be deployed in both a combat mission and a reconnaissance mission. Other missions have been defined as those involved in the transportation of people or equipment.

*This figure does not include C17, which is estimated to have flown two missions a month in the period in question. The records for C17 are not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.