Lord Soames of Fletching
Main Page: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Soames of Fletching's debates with the Ministry of Defence
809 Naval Air Squadron
Lord Soames of Fletching Excerpts(8 months, 2 weeks ago)
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The Earl of Minto (Con)
My Lords, the noble Lord makes a very good point about additional funds for defence; I think we are all in the same area on this. The problem is that resources are finite. There are strong arguments in all sorts of different directions. The Prime Minister has given a clear indication to reach 2.5%; it looks as though this year will end up at about 2.3%. As far as the two squadrons are concerned, the answer is yes: there will be up to 12 aircraft in each squadron by the time the carrier force is ready to go.
Lord Soames of Fletching (Con)
My Lords, will my noble friend confirm that there will be, and is, a pipeline of training sufficient for the pilots of both the Royal Air Force and the Fleet Air Arm to cover these mythical beasts?
The Earl of Minto (Con)
My Lords, the training programme is in line with the build-up of aircraft. While it is not an easy thing to get right, the aircraft will certainly be capable of being manned.