Military Aircraft: Helicopters
(asked on 10th February 2016) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) Sea King HC4, (b) Wildcat, (c) Gazelle, (d) Apache, (e) Chinook HC2/3, (f) Puma HC2 and (g) Merlin Mk 3/3A helicopters are (i) in the Forward Available Fleet, (ii) in the Sustainment Fleet and (iii) classed as Short-Term Unserviceable.
The Forward Fleet comprises aircraft which are serviceable and those which are short-term unserviceable.
The Sustainment Fleet numbers represent those aircraft in our Depth Fleet, which comprises aircraft which are undergoing planned depth maintenance or upgrade programmes.
Short-term unserviceable aircraft are undergoing minor works, forward maintenance or any other unforeseen rectification or technical inspection work that can arise on a day-to-day basis. Figures shown are the average for December 2015, the most recent data available.
Query | Sea King HC4 | Wildcat BRH Mk1 | Wildcat HMA Mk2 | Gazelle | Apache | Chinook HC2/3 Note 1 | Puma HC2 | Merlin Mk 3/3A |
Forward Available Fleet | 7 | 19 | 14 | 19 | 32 | 0 | 13 | 17 |
Sustainment Fleet | 0 | 8 | 3 | 7 | 18 | 0 | 10 | 8 |
Short-Term Unserviceable | 2 | 12 | 7 | 12 | 13 | 0 | 4 | 10 |
Note 1:
All Chinook HC2/2a aircraft have undergone modification with new cockpit avionics and are now HC4 variants. In December 2015 there were 26 HC4 aircraft in the forward fleet and 12 in sustainment.
The (eight) Chinook HC3 were all removed from the forward fleet last year and are undergoing modification with new cockpit avionics and a new digital automatic flight control system. Once modified, these aircraft become Chinook HC5 variants.