Asked by: Lord Richards of Herstmonceux (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what variants of CV12 power packs are fitted to (1) the Challenger 2 tank, (2) the Challenger Armoured Recovery and Repair Vehicle (CHARRV), and (3) the Trojan armoured engineer tank.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
The variants of the CV12 powerpacks fitted to the Challenger base vehicle family are:
| Powerpack |
Challenger 2 | CV12-6A |
Challenger 3 | CV12-9A |
Challenger Armoured Recovery and Repair Vehicle (CRARRV) | CV12-5C/6C |
TITAN/TROJAN | CV12-8A |
A small number of CRARRV vehicles are currently fitted with CV12-5C powerpacks that will be replaced with CV12-6C powerpacks on failure or when the vehicle is attending base workshop, whichever comes first.
Asked by: Lord Richards of Herstmonceux (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the power pack fitted to the new Challenger 3 is (1) a contemporary CV12 engine similar to a 5A, or (2) a CV12 with common rail fuel injection and new engine management system, or (3) something else; and if it is something else, what is its specification.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
The variants of the CV12 powerpacks fitted to the Challenger base vehicle family are:
| Powerpack |
Challenger 2 | CV12-6A |
Challenger 3 | CV12-9A |
Challenger Armoured Recovery and Repair Vehicle (CRARRV) | CV12-5C/6C |
TITAN/TROJAN | CV12-8A |
A small number of CRARRV vehicles are currently fitted with CV12-5C powerpacks that will be replaced with CV12-6C powerpacks on failure or when the vehicle is attending base workshop, whichever comes first.
Asked by: Lord Richards of Herstmonceux (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made in rationalising the variants of the CV12 power packs fitted to the various marks and variants of the Challenger 2 tank, including the armoured engineer vehicles.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
Overall powerpack commonality can be only achieved between Challenger 2, Challenger 3 and the Challenger Armoured Recovery and Repair Vehicle following the identification of a replacement refrigerant to fill the crew temperature control system to comply with the Montreal protocol. A post-design services task has been placed on contract with Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land for this work.
Asked by: Lord Richards of Herstmonceux (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Challenger 3 tank has been trialled by (1) the Armoured Trials and Development Unit at Bovington, or (2) an equivalent establishment; and if so, (a) what track mileage has been covered so far, and (b) with what type of power pack.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
The Challenger 3 programme remains in the early stages of Demonstration and Manufacture, with detailed design work ongoing prior to Critical Design Review. The assembly of initial prototypes will follow along with a detailed trials programme.
Asked by: Lord Richards of Herstmonceux (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to The Integrated Review 2021, published on 16 March, what will be the level of readiness of the 3rd (UK) Division; and how many days would it take for at least one manoeuvre brigade to be deployed in an operational theatre outside of the European mainland.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
The Army is always ready to fulfil the task of protecting the nation and holds various people and units at different readiness, along with the equipment and stocks required to support them, to enable us to compete against our adversaries, tackle threats at source and reassure allies.
I am unable to disclose further details of the level of readiness of the 3rd (UK) Division, as to do so would, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of our Armed Forces.
Asked by: Lord Richards of Herstmonceux (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether it will be possible for a fully formed and equipped 3 Commando Brigade to be embarked on shipping that (1) is owned by, or is under the control of, Her Majesty's Government, or (2) that can be made available to Her Majesty's Government (a) whatever the intentional circumstances, and (b) without significant recourse to the United States assets.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
As set out in the Integrated Review, the Royal Marines are now in transition to the Future Commando Force (FCF). The FCF re-designs how Commando Forces operate and fight.
Through one element of this, they will form two Littoral Response Groups (LRG) with associated enablers, including shipping. One LRG will be persistently deployed East of Suez, with an Initial Operating Capability in 2023.
Asked by: Lord Richards of Herstmonceux (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether both of the Royal Navy's aircraft carriers are fully operational and can be deployed simultaneously; and in the event of such deployments, how many aircraft would each ship carry.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH and HMS PRINCE OF WALES are capable of deploying to protect and enhance the Nation's interests around the globe. The number of aircraft onboard each carrier will be tailored appropriately dependent upon the nature of the tasking. Both aircraft carriers are fully capable of operating a spectrum of Rotary Wing aircraft and Lightning F-35Bs.
Asked by: Lord Richards of Herstmonceux (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Foreign Secretary’s Mansion House speech on 6 May, whether they will conduct a review of defence spending; and whether they will commit to spending more than the minimum NATO endorsed proportion of GDP on defence.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The Government has committed to meet the NATO pledge to spend at least 2% of GDP on defence every year of this Parliament.
Future defence spending will be agreed at the Spending Review.
Asked by: Lord Richards of Herstmonceux (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on 12 February (HL5176), what are the figures for the Medical Deployability Standard categories for (1) the army, (2) the Royal Navy, and (3) the Royal Air Force.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
There are three Medical Deployability Standard (MDS) categories for the Armed Forces.
Medically Fully Deployable (MFD) personnel are those medically fit for duty with no employment limitations.
Medically Limited Deployable (MLD) personnel are medically fit for duty with minor employment limitations. MLD personnel may have a medical condition or functional limitation that prevents the meeting of all MFD requirements.
Medically Not Deployable (MND) personnel are medically fit for duty with major employment limitations. MND personnel are not currently deployable on Operations but may be deployable on UK based exercises and should be able to work effectively for at least 32.5 hours per week. MND status, as with other MDS categories, is often only temporary due to injury or illness, and may change following medical review.
The table below provides the number and percentage of UK Regular Armed Forces personnel by permanent and temporary MDS category, by Service, as at 1 January 2018.
| All Services | Naval Service | Army | RAF | ||||
No | % | No | % | No | % | No | % | |
All Personnel | 137,263 |
| 29,264 |
| 77,467 |
| 30,532 |
|
Medically Fully Deployable | 110,154 | 80.3% | 24,458 | 83.6% | 60,396 | 78.0% | 25,300 | 82.9% |
Medically Limited Deployable | 13,967 | 10.2% | 2,071 | 7.1% | 9,972 | 12.9% | 1,924 | 6.3% |
Temporary | 4,329 | 3.2% | 522 | 1.8% | 3,036 | 3.9% | 771 | 2.5% |
Permanent | 9,522 | 6.9% | 1,506 | 5.1% | 6,902 | 8.9% | 1,114 | 3.6% |
Medically Not Deployable | 13,104 | 9.5% | 2,717 | 9.3% | 7,082 | 9.1% | 3,305 | 10.8% |
Temporary | 10,284 | 7.5% | 2,189 | 7.5% | 5,324 | 6.9% | 2,771 | 9.1% |
Permanent | 2,720 | 2.0% | 505 | 1.7% | 1,733 | 2.2% | 482 | 1.6% |
Naval Service includes Royal Navy and Royal Marines. Please note that some of the total figures may be greater than the sum of their parts. This is because data on the temporary or permanent Medical Deployability Standard status of some personnel was not available.
Asked by: Lord Richards of Herstmonceux (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many servicemen and servicewomen are currently unable to deploy on combat operations because they cannot meet the required medical standard.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
There are three Medical Deployability Standard (MDS) categories for the Armed Forces.
Medically Fully Deployable (MFD) personnel are those medically fit for duty with no employment limitations.
Medically Limited Deployable (MLD) personnel are medically fit for duty with minor employment limitations. MLD personnel may have a medical condition or functional limitation that prevents the meeting of all MFD requirements.
Medically Not Deployable (MND) personnel are medically fit for duty with major employment limitations. MND personnel are not currently deployable on Operations but may be deployable on UK based exercises and should be able to work effectively for at least 32.5 hours per week. MND status, as with other MDS categories, is often only temporary due to injury or illness, and may change following medical review.
As at 1 October 2017, there were 137,280 full-time trained UK Armed Forces personnel, of whom 110,036 (80.2%) were MFD.
13,989* (10.2%) were MLD, of whom 4,370 (31.2%) were MLD Temporary.
13,223* (9.6%) were MND, of whom 10,329 (78.1%) were MND Temporary.
*subject to regrading following medical review