Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will publish the locations of the UK air defence network’s seven fixed radar sites and the yearly running cost of each site.

Our surveillance comprises of a Control and Reporting Centre (CRC) at RAF Boulmer Northumberland and seven Remote Radar Heads (RRH) housing the RAF Air Defence radars. The CRC combines and actions the feeds from the radars on air activity required to defend the UK and NATO partners, whilst exchanging information with neighbouring NATO partners, Airborne Early Warning aircraft and ships. The locations of the Air Defence radars are:

RRH Benbecula, Outer Hebrides

RRH Saxa Vord, Shetland Islands

RRH Buchan, Aberdeenshire

RRH Brizlee Wood, Northumberland

RRH Staxton Wold, North Yorkshire

RRH Trimingham, Norfolk

RRH Portreath, Cornwall

The yearly running costs of each Remote Radar Head are not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost. This is due to the radar maintenance, and separate radome and site maintenance required at each site being subject to differing multi-year contracts which cover multiple sites. Consequently, costs cannot be broken down or attributed on a per site basis.