Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to point 5 of his letter of 20 April 2021, reference MSU4.6.7.2, what progress has been made since on improvements to Texan trainer aircraft.

Work continues with industry on the life raft and there has been significant progress on the Universal Water Activated Release System harness, with embodiment on all ten Texan aircraft due to be complete by the end of October.

It remains the case that Texan aircraft continues to routinely and safely operate over the sea. The modifications identified are to further enhance the protection for our aircrew, enabling training over the roughest of sea states. However, it also remains the case that we will always need to conduct essential training flights over land to ensure pilots receive training for all scenarios they may face when on operations and to ensure effective use of all available airspace and training sortie times.