Written question asked by Lord Astor of Hever (Conservative), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Baroness Taylor of Bolton (Labour) on Tuesday, 6 April 2010.

Armed Forces: Aircraft

Question: To ask Her Majesty's Government where the Harrier aircraft which are (a) in service with HM Armed Forces, and (b) in operational condition, are based.

Answer: "In service" has been taken to mean the effective fleet, which includes all aircraft barring those that are redundant, declared as surplus or awaiting disposal. For the month of February 2010, there were a total of 72 Harriers in service, of which 46 aircraft were available to Joint Force Harrier (JFH) for tasking. The number of aircraft in the available fleet will fluctuate from day to day depending on planned maintenance or unforeseen rectification work, so the figure provided is an average rounded to the nearest aircraft. The remaining aircraft were either undergoing depth maintenance or rectification work, awaiting disposal or being used as trial aircraft. All Harriers in the in-service fleet are based at RAF Cottesmore, Wittering and Coningsby. After a very successful five years deployed in Afghanistan providing close air support to troops on the ground and tactical surveillance/reconnaissance, JFH is now undergoing a period of regeneration to rebuild the wider skill sets not utilised in Afghanistan.

Secondary information