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Written question asked by Willie Rennie (Liberal Democrat) on Thursday, 18 June 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 23 June 2009. It was answered by Bill Rammell (Labour) on Monday, 20 July 2009 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Thermobaric Weapons

Question
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.
Answer

[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.

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

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
496 c890W;496 c890-1W; 281920
Session
2008-09
Subjects
Weapons Thermobaric weapons
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk