Select committee: Defence Committee
Conclusion 18
Tenth Report - Aviation Procurement: Winging it?
Published 10 Sep 2023
Paragraph 125
Addressed to Ministry of Defence
Defence Committee Aviation Procurement All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The far-reaching cuts to aircraft numbers set out in the 2021 Defence Command Paper weakened the UK’s air power capability at a time when the armed forces were already over-stretched. The scale of this gamble became clear less than a year later, when Europe faced its most serious security crisis in decades as Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The MoD’s acceptance of capability gaps and its cuts to combat mass across the fleet have left the UK dangerously exposed at a time of increasing threat to national security and risk diminishing our role within NATO.
From: Defence Committee, Tenth Report - Aviation Procurement: Winging it? (HC 178), paragraph 125, 10 September 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 14 November 2023 (deadline 10 November 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Ministry of Defence "rejects the Committee's central assertion" that the UK's air capability leaves it "dangerously exposed", while responding to individual recommendations with a mix of acknowledgement, explanation and conditional commitments.
- On the F-35, the government will "consider again in the mid-2020s the F-35 fleet size as part of the next Strategic Defence Review", including the best variant (A or B). It acknowledges concerns on technician numbers but rejects that the shortfall was "inexcusable".
- On Tranche 1 Typhoons, it does not support mothballing: retaining them would need investment "in excess of £300 million (and potentially much more)" and would preclude planned component harvesting.
- On Wedgetail, it "accept[s] there is some increased risk" to sovereign and NATO commitments from cutting the fleet from five to three aircraft, but says this was factored in. It will "keep decisions on the appropriate size of our force under review".
- On reporting, it "would be happy to provide" updates on A400M availability and pilot holding numbers "if the committee would find such an update useful". It does not commit to a full review of flying training contracts, citing "limited benefit", but is conducting a "targeted review" of incentive structures.