Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what platforms they consider could fill any anti-submarine warfare manned aircraft gap at an acceptable level of technical risk within the timeframe available after the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review; and what assessment they have made of how long it would take to integrate United Kingdom complex weapons into such platforms.

The information requested is not available, as typically such questions are addressed at a later stage in a procurement cycle. A decision on whether to acquire a new capability will not be made until the next Strategic Defence and Security Review.