Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 12 June 2023 to Question 188207 on Guided Weapons, what recent estimate he has made of when the aircraft certification process will be completed.

Aircraft certification is currently forecast to be delivered in 2026. This is the point at which the full weapon system capability for SEA VENOM will be provided to the Royal Navy (RN) and the final modification of Wildcat can commence.

The RN already has a number of aircrew trained in the operation of the current capability of the SEA VENOM weapon system. For ground crew, SEA VENOM handling and loading already forms part of the core WILDCAT weapons course delivered by the Wildcat Training Centre.