Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-02-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) Sea King HC4, (b) Wildcat, (c) Gazelle, (d) Apache, (e) Chinook HC2/3, (f) Puma HC2 and (g) Merlin Mk 3/3A helicopters were used for military flight training in each of the last six years.
Mr Philip Dunne
The following table shows the numbers of aircraft, broken down by type, for the previous six financial years:
|
FY |
Sea King HC4 |
Wildcat BRH Mk1 |
Gazelle |
Apache |
Chinook HC2/3 |
Puma HC2 |
Merlin Mk 3/3A |
|
14-15 |
2 |
12 |
4 |
11 |
4 |
10 |
2 |
|
13-14 |
2 |
61 |
3 |
12 |
8 |
41 |
2 |
|
12-13 |
2 |
– |
4 |
12 |
10 |
– |
2 |
|
11-12 |
2 |
– |
2 |
11 |
10 |
– |
2 |
|
10-11 |
2 |
– |
3 |
12 |
11 |
– |
2 |
|
09-10 |
2 |
– |
6 |
12 |
15 |
– |
2 |
Note 1: Not in service before 2013-14.
All Chinook HC2/2a aircraft have undergone modification with new cockpit avionics and are now HC4. In December 2015 there were 26 HC4 aircraft in the forward fleet and 12 in sustainment.
The (eight) Chinook HC3 were all removed from the forward fleet last year and are undergoing modification with new cockpit avionics and a new digital automatic flight control system. Once modified, these aircraft become Chinook HC5.
The Wildcat HMA MK2 entered service in January 2015, but was not used for training in that financial year as it was in a trials phase.
