Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment has he made of the impact of the grounding of the United States Air Force (a) AC-135, (b) WC-135 and (c) KC-135 on the UK's Rivet Joint fleet.

The US issued a Technical Order to inspect the Fin-terminal fitting pins on all C-135 aircraft variants for non-conforming parts. The inspections had no impact on operational capability or availability of the UK Rivet Joint Fleet as all inspections were conducted within normal maintenance events between sorties. All UK Rivet Joint aircraft were inspected with no issues identified, and all UK aircraft were cleared for flight.