Armoured Fighting Vehicles and Military Aircraft
(asked on 12th December 2023) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the average availability rate was for (a) wheeled support vehicles, (b) Landrovers, (c) Typhoons and (d) Lightnings in each year since 2018.
Average annual Forward Fleet figures for the Typhoon and F-35B Lightning fleets are given in the table below.
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 20231 |
Typhoon | 96 | 100 | 100 | 101 | 100 | 100 |
Lightning (2) | 7(3) | 11 | 14 | 17 | 21 | 24 |
- January to November only
- Excludes three aircraft in the Test and Evaluation role in the US.
- From June to December only
The Forward Fleet comprises serviceable and short-term unserviceable aircraft. Typically, the short-term unserviceable fleet aircraft are undergoing minor works, forward maintenance or other unforeseen rectification or technical inspection that can arise on a day-to-day basis. The number of aircraft varies day-to-day, according to normal flight management activities.
The British Army holds and maintains an appropriate amount of all its platforms to meet operational requirements. For security reasons, I am withholding further information on the number of wheeled support vehicles and Land Rovers available for operational deployment.