House of Commons and House of Lords Hansard Written Answers
National Cyber Force: Samlesbury
Question for Ministry of Defence
John Healey
Labour
Wentworth and Dearne
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he made the final decision on the selection of Samlesbury as the location for the headquarters of National Cyber Force.
Answer
Mr Ben Wallace
Conservative
Wyre and Preston North
Commons
Answered on 18 May 2022
A number of factors were taken into account when considering the locations for the National Cyber Force. The process was fully in accordance with normal Government practice and in line with the Government’s stated policy of Levelling Up and investing in public bodies right across the UK. Further details to the right hon. Member’s questions will be provided in response to his letter dated 29 April to the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Defence.
AWE Aldermaston and AWE Burghfield
Question for Ministry of Defence
John Healey
Labour
Wentworth and Dearne
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the (a) original and (b) current cost expectations are for the (i) MENSA and (ii) PEGASUS projects.
Answer
Jeremy Quin
Conservative
Horsham
Commons
Answered on 18 May 2022
The original and current approved costs and the current in-service dates for Project Mensa and Project Pegasus are as follows:
Project
Original Cost Approved in 2011
Current Approved Cost Approved In-service Date
MENSA £734 million £1996 million 2024
PEGASUS £634 million £634 million
Material Handling Store – 2025 Manufacture Capability – 2030
Export Controls: India
Question for Department for International Trade
Mr Kevan Jones
Labour
North Durham
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what criteria her Department plans to use to assess the success of the Open General Export Licence with India for defence procurement.
Answer
Mr Ranil Jayawardena
Conservative
North East Hampshire
Commons
Answered on 18 May 2022
We are continuing to work with relevant departments on the Open General Export Licence announced by my Rt Hon. Friend the Prime Minister, at the press conference with India’s Prime Minister Modi on 22nd April 2022.
Challenger Tanks
Question for Ministry of Defence
John Healey
Labour
Wentworth and Dearne
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what discussions he has had with his counterparts in NATO countries with Soviet-era capabilities about backfill arrangements in addition to those proposed with Poland in respect of Challenger II tanks.
Answer
James Heappey
Conservative
Wells
Commons
Answered on 18 May 2022
The UK has been steadfast in its support for our Allies on the Eastern Flank who face threat from Russia most acutely. British Challenger 2 tanks will deploy to Poland to bridge the gap between Poland donating tanks to Ukraine and replacements arriving from the United States. Defence ministers have made clear to partners that we remain open to backfill arrangements for Soviet-era capabilities given to Ukraine.
Joint Strike Fighter Aircraft: Procurement
Question for Ministry of Defence
John Healey
Labour
Wentworth and Dearne
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many F-35 fighter jets his Department plans to (a) buy and (b) have delivered to the UK in each year until 2040.
Answer
Jeremy Quin
Conservative
Horsham
Commons
Answered on 18 May 2022
Deliveries of the remainder of the first tranche of 48 Lightning aircraft between 2023 and 2025 are shown in the following table:
2023 (LOT 15) – two airframes
2024 (LOT 16) – four airframes
2025 (LOT 17) – seven airframes
For the second tranche of Lightning aircraft, I refer the Rt. Hon Member to the Answer I gave to the Member for Islwyn on 9 December 2021 to
Joint Strike Fighter Aircraft: Procurement
Question for Ministry of Defence
John Healey
Labour
Wentworth and Dearne
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the total cost will be for the UK’s order of F-35 jets as of 12 May 2022.
Answer
Jeremy Quin
Conservative
Horsham
Commons
Answered on 18 May 2022
The estimated price for the procurement of the 48 aircraft ordered is circa £4.2 billion.
Challenger Tanks: Exports
Question for Ministry of Defence
Mr Kevan Jones
Labour
North Durham
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment has he made of the likelihood that Challenger 3 will be successful in the export market.
Answer
Jeremy Quin
Conservative
Horsham
Commons
Answered on 18 May 2022
Challenger 3 (CR3) will be a highly capable Main Battle Tank with world-leading performance. The Ministry of Defence continues to work with industry to explore export markets, opportunities, and priorities for the CR3 tank and the CR3 turret. We are confident that its cutting-edge capabilities will make it attractive to our international partners.
LE TacCIS Programme
Question for Ministry of Defence
John Healey
Labour
Wentworth and Dearne
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when he expects the Battlefield Management Application to be completed.
Answer
Jeremy Quin
Conservative
Horsham
Commons
Answered on 18 May 2022
The Battlefield Management Application is part of the MORPHEUS project. The Ministry of Defence is in discussion with various parties to identify the optimum route to full MORPHEUS capability.
Armoured Fighting Vehicles
Question for Ministry of Defence
Mr Kevan Jones
Labour
North Durham
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment he has made of the UK’s ability to effectively operate its existing provision of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles.
Answer
Jeremy Quin
Conservative
Horsham
Commons
Answered on 18 May 2022
We remain confident of our ability to effectively manage our protected mobility fleet to meet our commitments.
Challenger Tanks
Question for Ministry of Defence
Mr Kevan Jones
Labour
North Durham
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, on what basis the Challenger 2 upgrade has been spread over four years; and what assessment he has made of the effect this duration will have on the availability rates for Main Battle Tank.
Answer
Jeremy Quin
Conservative
Horsham
Commons
Answered on 18 May 2022
Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL) were awarded the Challenger 2 (CR2) upgrade contract based on their timelines to conduct the Demonstration and Manufacture phases for the Challenger 3 (CR3). The initial production vehicles are expected to be delivered in 2027 with all vehicles delivered by 2030. The Army will continue to meet current operational commitments requiring Main Battle Tanks throughout this period of transition from CR2 to CR3. Defence is keen to see the delivery of Challenger 3 as soon as practical but it is important that this technically complex project is executed effectively and on a realistic timeframe.
Defence Equipment
Question for Ministry of Defence
Mr Kevan Jones
Labour
North Durham
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the accuracy of messages published by the MOD’s Official Press Office Twitter Account in relation to the Public Accounts Committee Report entitled Ministry of Defence Equipment Plan 2021–31.
Answer
Mr Ben Wallace
Conservative
Wyre and Preston North
Commons
Answered on 16 May 2022
I agree with the tweet that the Public Accounts Committee Report (PAC) contained numerous inaccuracies. The Ministry of Defence will be writing to the PAC to outline these in detail in due course.
Greece: Defence
Question for Ministry of Defence
Mr Kevan Jones
Labour
North Durham
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to support UK defence exports to Greece.
Answer
Jeremy Quin
Conservative
Horsham
Commons
Answered on 17 May 2022
The Government is actively supporting a number of defence export campaigns to Greece. I have personally made four visits to Greece in support of our strong relationship and partnership/export campaigns over the last two years and was able to raise these most recently with the Greek Defence Secretary and senior officials when I visited on 18 March 2022.
RAF Waddington: Unmanned Air Vehicles
Question for Ministry of Defence
Mr Kevan Jones
Labour
North Durham
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether ground stations for the UK’s Predator fleet will be transferred to RAF Waddington by 2024.
Answer
Jeremy Quin
Conservative
Horsham
Commons
Answered on 17 May 2022
The Predator B is known as Reaper in UK service. The ground control stations for the Reaper fleet are split between RAF Waddington and Creech Air Force Base in the United States. One of the US based ground control stations will be transferred to RAF Waddington for use as a simulator. The remainder will stay at their current US location to retain operational output and provide resilience until Reaper goes out of service in 2024, after which all the ground control stations will be disposed.
USA: Joint Strike Fighter Aircraft
Question for Ministry of Defence
Mr Kevan Jones
Labour
North Durham
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of Government cooperation with the US next generation air dominance programme.
Answer
Jeremy Quin
Conservative
Horsham
Commons
Answered on 17 May 2022
The UK and US have a long-standing Combat Air relationship, having operated together for decades on many of the world’s most pressing security challenges. Interoperability with our allies and partners remains at the heart of our approach and we work to ensure it continues across our current and future combat air fleets.
Trident Submarines: Finance
Question for Ministry of Defence
Mr Kevan Jones
Labour
North Durham
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the contingency budget applied to the Dreadnought programme.
Answer
Jeremy Quin
Conservative
Horsham
Commons
Answered on 17 May 2022
The 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review estimated that the Dreadnought programme is likely to cost a total of £31 billion (including inflation, over the 35 years of the programme) and set a contingency of £10 billion. The programme remains on track to deliver to schedule and within this budget.
Fleet Solid Support Ships: Procurement
Question for Ministry of Defence
Mr Kevan Jones
Labour
North Durham
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will publish the social value criteria used on the Fleet Solid Support Ship contract once it has been concluded.
Answer
Jeremy Quin
Conservative
Horsham
Commons
Answered on 17 May 2022
The Social Value benefits offered by the winning bidder will be made public once the contract is placed for the Fleet Solid Support (FSS) ships. It would not be appropriate to publish the social value evaluation criteria used in the FSS competition, as it may be prejudicial to the Ministry of Defence’s commercial interests and its ability to conduct competitions and negotiations for future procurements.
Nuclear Weapons: Procurement
Question for Ministry of Defence
Mark Pritchard
Conservative
The Wrekin
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress has been made on the replacement of the UK’s nuclear warhead upgrade programme.
Answer
Jeremy Quin
Conservative
Horsham
Commons
Answered on 17 May 2022
The programme to replace the UK’s Sovereign Nuclear Warhead continues to progress and, following approval of the Strategic Outline Case in September 2021, has now entered its concept phase.
Trident Submarines
Question for Ministry of Defence
Mark Pritchard
Conservative
The Wrekin
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent progress has been made on the Dreadnought programme as part of the UK’s strategic nuclear defence.
Answer
Jeremy Quin
Conservative
Horsham
Commons
Answered on 17 May 2022
On 9 May 2022, the Ministry of Defence announced entry into the next and most significant phase of the Dreadnought programme, known as Delivery Phase 3 (DP3), and has committed over £2 billion in initial contracts with its Alliance Partners, BAE Systems and Rolls Royce.
DP3 will include commitments to see the First of Class, HMS Dreadnought, exit the Barrow-in-Furness shipyard for sea trials so that she will be ready for patrol in the early 2030s. DP3 will in addition lay the foundations and progress the work for the delivery of the remaining three Dreadnought boats.
European Fighter Aircraft: Decommissioning
Question for Ministry of Defence
Mr Kevan Jones
Labour
North Durham
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if his Department will reconsider the retirement of the first tranche of Typhoon.
Answer
Jeremy Quin
Conservative
Horsham
Commons
Answered on 17 May 2022
The RAF is at the vanguard of a transformation to drive forward cutting-edge equipment programmes. This requires us to retire equipment that has increasingly limited utility against the most sophisticated combat air platforms. Tranche one Typhoon airframes simply do not have the necesary upgrade potential for this scale of combat due to their baseline architecture.
Australia: LE TacCIS Programme
Question for Ministry of Defence
John Healey
Labour
Wentworth and Dearne
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what discussions his (a) Department and (b) British Army representatives have had with their Australian counterparts on security concerns relating to the Elbit Systems Battlefield Management Application.
Answer
Jeremy Quin
Conservative
Horsham
Commons
Answered on 17 May 2022
The Ministry of Defence makes frequent assessments of the security risks of all software products, either in use or in development. It will not share details of those assessments for operational security reasons.
Artillery: Armoured Fighting Vehicles
Question for Ministry of Defence
Jack Lopresti
Conservative
Filton and Bradley Stoke
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Answer of 25 April 2022 to Question 155693, on Artillery: Armoured Fighting Vehicles, whether tracked as well as wheeled vehicles will be considered for the Mobile Fires Platform.
Answer
Jeremy Quin
Conservative
Horsham
Commons
Answered on 17 May 2022
I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave in response to his question 155693 which explained that we are evaluating all potential vehicle types against the requirement for Mobile Fires Platform.
India: Technology
Question for Ministry of Defence
Mr Kevan Jones
Labour
North Durham
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department plans to take to support India’s requirements for new technology.
Answer
Jeremy Quin
Conservative
Horsham
Commons
Answered on 17 May 2022
The UK and India are due to finalise a Letter of Arrangement between the UK’s Defence Science & Technology Laboratory and India’s Defence Research & Development Organisation. This will help to deliver advanced security capabilities through joint research, co-design, co-development and joint production of defence technology and systems.
Russia: Ukraine
Question for Ministry of Defence
Mr Kevan Jones
Labour
North Durham
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the UK’s ability to support its logistics chain in relation to its Enhanced Forward Presence in (a) Poland and (b) Estonia.
Answer
James Heappey
Conservative
Wells
Commons
Answered on 17 May 2022
As framework nation of NATO’s enhanced forward presence in Estonia, the UK has successfully maintained two battlegroups in country since early March, increasing our previous presence in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Throughout this period our logistics chain has supported circa 1,800 personnel in Estonia and 250 in Poland (130 in support of the US-led Enhanced Forward Presence) alongside tanks and armoured fighting vehicles. To support this increase in personnel we have doubled our resupply deliveries when required, demonstrating our continued ability to successfully support the logistics chain for UK Enhanced Forward Presence (eFP).
Over the five years we have been the framework nation, the logistic support function has overseen the deployment of 10 battlegroups and successfully carried out approximately10 Strategic Sealifts, and circa 80 flights in support of Strategic Airlifts. My assessment is that the logistics chain will continue to allow UK deployments in support of Allies in Estonia and Poland.
Poland: Challenger Tanks
Question for Ministry of Defence
John Healey
Labour
Wentworth and Dearne
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether plans to send Challenger II tanks to Poland will affect plans to retire one third of the Challenger II tank fleet.
Answer
Jeremy Quin
Conservative
Horsham
Commons
Answered on 16 May 2022
Deployment of Challenger 2 tanks to Poland will not affect the decision to retire elements of the CR2 fleet.
AWACS: Procurement
Question for Ministry of Defence
Mr Kevan Jones
Labour
North Durham
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether a formal contract has been signed with Boeing for three E-7 Wedgetail.
Answer
Jeremy Quin
Conservative
Horsham
Commons
Answered on 16 May 2022
In March 2019 the Ministry of Defence signed a contract with Boeing Defence UK to deliver five Wedgetail aircraft to the Royal Air Force (RAF). Following the Integrated Review decision to reduce the number of Wedgetail aircraft that would enter RAF service, elements of that contract were renegotiated and formal agreement on the associated change has been reached; the contract amendment is in the process of being enacted.
European Fighter Aircraft: Radar
Question for Ministry of Defence
Mr Kevan Jones
Labour
North Durham
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether AESA radars will be fitted to tranche 2 Typhoons.
Answer
Jeremy Quin
Conservative
Horsham
Commons
Answered on 16 May 2022
The Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA), or the European Common Radar System Mark 2 (ECRS Mk2), is planned to be delivered and integrated onto Typhoon by end of this decade. Our current planning assumption is that ECRS Mk2 hardware will be installed on UK Tranche 3 Typhoon aircraft, although this is being kept under review.
Air Force: Unmanned Air Vehicles
Question for Ministry of Defence
Mr Kevan Jones
Labour
North Durham
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the (a) adequacy of the number of Protector drones in the RAF and (b) number of Remotely Piloted Air Systems required for RAF operations.
Answer
James Heappey
Conservative
Wells
Commons
Answered on 16 May 2022
Remotely Piloted Air Systems (RPAS) such as Protector and Reaper are taking an increasingly important place in the Defence capability of the UK in a rapidly changing technological and international environment. As such, we keep the size and capability of our RPAS fleet under constant review. The UK has ordered 16 Protector RPAS to replace its existing Reaper Fleet.
Ukraine: Ranger Regiment
Question for Ministry of Defence
John Healey
Labour
Wentworth and Dearne
Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the Ranger regiment has been deployed to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion of that country in February 2022.
Answer
James Heappey
Conservative
Wells
Commons
Answered on 16 May 2022
As the Secretary of State for Defence said in his statement of 17 January 2022, we deployed UK personnel, including from the Ranger Regiment, to Ukraine to provide training on anti-tank weapons before the Russian invasion. They left Ukraine in early February after delivering this training.
For operational reasons, we will not comment on the exact number of UK military personnel in Ukraine or their whereabouts.