Asked by: David Reed (Conservative - Exmouth and Exeter East)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he plans to take to achieve £6 billion in new efficiencies within the defence budget during this parliament; and what the sources of these will be.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
As set out in the SDR, we have identified £6 billion of new savings over the course of this Parliament, through efficiency and productivity savings, civilian workforce changes, structural simplification and contractual efficiencies.
Alongside the Defence Investment Plan later this year, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) will publish a Defence Reform and Efficiency Plan, which will provide further detail on the range of reforms across the MOD which will deliver these efficiencies.
Asked by: David Reed (Conservative - Exmouth and Exeter East)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that Project Grayburn (a) supports economic growth, (b) strengthens UK-based supply chains and (c) creates skilled jobs across the United Kingdom.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave on 28 April 2025 to Question 45196 to the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Mr Obese-Jecty) and on 14 May 2025 to Question 50537 to the hon. Member for South Suffolk (Mr Cartlidge).
Asked by: David Reed (Conservative - Exmouth and Exeter East)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to replace the SA80 rifle.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave on 28 April 2025 to Question 45196 to the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Mr Obese-Jecty) and on 14 May 2025 to Question 50537 to the hon. Member for South Suffolk (Mr Cartlidge).
Asked by: David Reed (Conservative - Exmouth and Exeter East)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what was the total cost to the public purse of training personnel on jet aircraft in (a) the UK and (b) overseas in each of the last five years; and what proportion of the total training budget each represents.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The UK Military Flying Training System (UKMFTS) cost for the Fast Jet training element over the last 5 years was circa £500.4 million. That includes fixed and multiple variable costs such as fuel, instructor and trainee salary, infrastructure/accommodation upkeep, aerodrome operations and runway refurbishment.
The cost detail for Fast Jet Outsourced Training over the last five years is being withheld to protect commercial confidentiality. Outsourcing services are negotiated Government to Government via Memorandums of Understanding and Technical Arrangements and therefore it is not appropriate to disclose specific cost detail.
It is not possible to state what proportion of the total training budget this represents as the information is not held in this format and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: David Reed (Conservative - Exmouth and Exeter East)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many UK personnel have been trained on jet aircraft in (a) the UK and (b) overseas in each of the last five years; and in which countries overseas training has taken place.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
In the last five years there have been 82 UK personnel trained on fast jet (FJ) aircraft in the UK and 22 UK personnel trained on fast jet aircraft overseas. Overseas training has taken place in the USA and Italy.
Financial Year | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | TOTAL |
FJ Pilots trained in the UK | 24 | 28 | 5 | 7 | 18 | 82 |
FJ Pilots trained overseas | 0 | 0 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 22 |
Asked by: David Reed (Conservative - Exmouth and Exeter East)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 16 January 2025 to Question 23535 on Hawk Aircraft, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the high fatigue index in the remaining Hawk T1 fleet on the total number of available UK-based training hours for personnel.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Hawk T1 is not employed in a flying training role. The Hawk T1 airframes are solely allocated to sustaining the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, The Red Arrows.
As given in the answer to Question 23535, across all airframes we have retained more than sufficient overall remaining available fatigue life to ensure all Red Arrows tasking until 2030 as planned.
Asked by: David Reed (Conservative - Exmouth and Exeter East)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the annual cost is to maintain the Hawk T1 fleet under the existing fleet maintenance contract.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
There are two support contracts in place to support the Hawk TMk1 to its out of service date in March 2030 and the Hawk TMk2 to 2033. Specific terms and conditions are subject to commercial confidentiality. In the financial year from 2023-24 the value for solely the TMk1 aircraft maintenance was £27.7 million.
Asked by: David Reed (Conservative - Exmouth and Exeter East)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 16 January 2025 to Question 23535 on Hawk Aircraft, what plans his Department has for the replacement of the Hawk T1 by 2030; and whether it is his policy to maintain a sovereign jet training capability in this process.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 5 December 2024 for Question 16460 to the right hon. Member for Rayleigh and Wickford (Mark Francois).
Asked by: David Reed (Conservative - Exmouth and Exeter East)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 10 December to Question 17489 on Electronic Warfare: Training, what percentage of the Ministry of Defence's demand for personnel with cyber warfare skills is being met; and how many personnel have been trained to date to meet this demand.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
This Government inherited a retention and recruitment crisis with every part of our Armed Forces not meeting their recruitment targets. Cyber is a key area for the military and we are seeking to expand the number of people working in cyber. The Defence Secretary announced a new direct entry route into cyber last year and this will be rolled out this year.
Asked by: David Reed (Conservative - Exmouth and Exeter East)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 9 December 2024 to Question 17490 on Armed Forces and Ministry of Defence: Artificial Intelligence, what the breakdown is between (a) public and (b) private sector involvement in the (i) development and (ii) deployment of (A) machine learning and (B) artificial intelligence technologies within the Armed Forces.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Many AI technologies, including machine learning, have dual uses and are developed across a broad technology ecosystem. Defence needs to leverage expertise from this ecosystem to solve critical military problems and maintain its edge. The Defence AI Centre (DAIC) and CommercialX are leading efforts to engage with technology suppliers through simplified processes and better cross-Ministry of Defence (MOD) coordination.
Most Defence AI and ML projects will use both in-house and external expertise. Differentiating between public and private sector involvement at a pan-Defence macro level is challenging and not currently tracked. AI deployments within the Department must follow MOD's Responsible AI policy, as outlined in Joint Services Publication 936 (Dependable AI).