Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many UK F35B and Crowsnest aircraft HMS Queen Elizabeth is carrying on her current deployment.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
We do not disclose information on, or comment on, current Royal Navy operations as to do so could prejudice the capability, effectiveness, or security of the Armed Forces. However, I can confirm that the scale of UK carrier deployments is tailored to the task, threat, location and is kept under constant review.
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the cannibalisations of Wildcat parts from aircraft undergoing maintenance and front-line squadrons is part of the "hollowing out" noted by the outgoing Defence Secretary in his resignation letter to the Prime Minster on 30 August.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
The reuse of any component or piece of equipment is closely managed and only done when strictly necessary to ensure capabilities are able to meet defence outputs. Whilst not planned, it is a valid engineering technique that can mitigate shortfalls in the supply of components that emerge for a whole host of reasons and is a useful management choice to expedite the return to flight of an aircraft faster than the supply chain.
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many UK F35B and Crowsnest aircraft HMS Prince of Wales is carrying on her current deployment.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
We do not disclose information on, or comment on, current Royal Navy operations as to do so could prejudice the capability, effectiveness, or security of the Armed Forces. However, I can confirm that the scale of UK carrier deployments is tailored to the task, threat, location and is kept under constant review.
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the level of progress being made in agreeing tri-national tasks of (1) vetting, (2) legal framework, and (3) standards, as AUKUS moves forward.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
Good progress is being made on AUKUS Pillar 2, the Advanced Capabilities Pillar, on quantum technologies, undersea capabilities, artificial intelligence and cyber, hypersonic and counter-hypersonic capabilities, and electronic warfare capabilities, supported by two enabling workstreams covering innovation, and information sharing. Substantial progress is being made in accelerating the near-term delivery of certain capabilities that will meet our militaries' requirements earlier: the first AUKUS artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomy trial, held in Wiltshire this April, achieved several world firsts, including the live retraining of models in flight and the interchange of AI models between AUKUS nations. AUKUS Principals met in London for the Advanced Capabilities Executive Group where they had productive discussions on Pillar 2 progress and endorsed a trilateral plan for engagement with industry ahead of the next meeting in November.
Whilst the Defence Secretary is the overall minister responsible for AUKUS, he is supported by the Permanent Secretary who is the most senior official on AUKUS, covering both Pillars 1 and 2. In the two years following the AUKUS announcement, the UK continues to work well on a trilateral basis, developing and implementing ambitious plans to streamline defence trade, whilst also strengthening our ability to protect sensitive technologies that underpin our security. Vetting, legal frameworks and establishing standards are an important part of wider AUKUS activity planned, with good progress being made overall.
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Defence, who is responsible for coordinating work on AUKUS Pillar 1, is also able to coordinate work on Pillar 2 across His Majesty's Government and industry.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
Good progress is being made on AUKUS Pillar 2, the Advanced Capabilities Pillar, on quantum technologies, undersea capabilities, artificial intelligence and cyber, hypersonic and counter-hypersonic capabilities, and electronic warfare capabilities, supported by two enabling workstreams covering innovation, and information sharing. Substantial progress is being made in accelerating the near-term delivery of certain capabilities that will meet our militaries' requirements earlier: the first AUKUS artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomy trial, held in Wiltshire this April, achieved several world firsts, including the live retraining of models in flight and the interchange of AI models between AUKUS nations. AUKUS Principals met in London for the Advanced Capabilities Executive Group where they had productive discussions on Pillar 2 progress and endorsed a trilateral plan for engagement with industry ahead of the next meeting in November.
Whilst the Defence Secretary is the overall minister responsible for AUKUS, he is supported by the Permanent Secretary who is the most senior official on AUKUS, covering both Pillars 1 and 2. In the two years following the AUKUS announcement, the UK continues to work well on a trilateral basis, developing and implementing ambitious plans to streamline defence trade, whilst also strengthening our ability to protect sensitive technologies that underpin our security. Vetting, legal frameworks and establishing standards are an important part of wider AUKUS activity planned, with good progress being made overall.
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government how work on AUKUS Pillar 2 is progressing.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
Good progress is being made on AUKUS Pillar 2, the Advanced Capabilities Pillar, on quantum technologies, undersea capabilities, artificial intelligence and cyber, hypersonic and counter-hypersonic capabilities, and electronic warfare capabilities, supported by two enabling workstreams covering innovation, and information sharing. Substantial progress is being made in accelerating the near-term delivery of certain capabilities that will meet our militaries' requirements earlier: the first AUKUS artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomy trial, held in Wiltshire this April, achieved several world firsts, including the live retraining of models in flight and the interchange of AI models between AUKUS nations. AUKUS Principals met in London for the Advanced Capabilities Executive Group where they had productive discussions on Pillar 2 progress and endorsed a trilateral plan for engagement with industry ahead of the next meeting in November.
Whilst the Defence Secretary is the overall minister responsible for AUKUS, he is supported by the Permanent Secretary who is the most senior official on AUKUS, covering both Pillars 1 and 2. In the two years following the AUKUS announcement, the UK continues to work well on a trilateral basis, developing and implementing ambitious plans to streamline defence trade, whilst also strengthening our ability to protect sensitive technologies that underpin our security. Vetting, legal frameworks and establishing standards are an important part of wider AUKUS activity planned, with good progress being made overall.
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Service Inquiry into the loss of the F-35B Lightning ZM152 (BK-18) of 617 Squadron, embarked on HMS Queen Elizabeth on 17 November 2021, what steps they are taking to address the findings that 617 Squadron "was under strength, morale was low, there were insufficient Quality Assurance checks being conducted at Marham and general readiness for FORTIS was lower than COMUKCSG had been led to believe".
Answered by Baroness Goldie
As a direct result of the lessons identified during and post Operation FORTIS, embarked engineering workforce levels were significantly increased, in recognition of the additional workload and fatigue associated with embarked operations. Since 2021, RAF Marham has been subject to two external third-party audits, with the most recent concluding that previously identified shortfalls had been resolved, or that appropriate corrective action plans were in place. The unit maintains a full internal quality audit programme with regular continuous-improvement events and independent engineering standard evaluations. Readiness for embarked operations is constantly scrutinised, and optimised where required, during regular Carrier Strike multi-disciplinary meetings.
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether maintaining a fleet of a minimum of 19 operational Destroyers and Frigates is still realistic and sufficient; and, if not, what the new minimum will be.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
The government is committed to modernising the Royal Navy's escort fleet through the transition of the existing Type 23 frigate force to the Type 26 and Type 31 classes. This will bring the number of destroyers and frigates to 19.
This is a realistic programme which will enable the Royal Navy to maintain its operational commitments.
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to speed up delivery of the Type 26 frigates so as to avoid any decrease in the number of Royal Navy frigates.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
The delivery rate for the Type 26 ships is the optimum that can be achieved considering all relevant factors. Four of the Type 26 ships are now in construction on the Clyde. On current plans, HMS GLASGOW is forecast to achieve Initial Operating Capability in 2028 and construction of all eight frigates is expected to be completed by the mid-2030s.
The Type 26 Batch 2 deal introduces further investment in BAE Systems’ facilities on the Clyde, most obviously demonstrated by the start of work on a new shipbuilding hall at Govan. The new hall will allow two frigates to be built under cover simultaneously and allow the ships to be built faster, improving efficiency in the programme, and expanding the facilities for future work at the yard.
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the reason that none of the Royal Navy’s six commissioned SSNs was at sea at the end of August, as shown by open source reporting, relates to inadequate material state, support infrastructure issues, crew shortages, or a combination of those; and whether Project Resolution will resolve such long-standing issues.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
We can confirm that we are meeting all our operational commitments, and will continue to ensure we have the workforce, support arrangements and facilities required to maintain availability in the future. For operational security reasons we do not comment on the availability of Royal Navy submarines.