Oral Answers to Questions

Douglas Carswell Excerpts

Monday 4th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

7. What assessment he has made of the Typhoon and Apache platforms in Operation Ellamy.

[Mr Douglas Carswell (Clacton) (Con)]

18. What assessment he has made of the performance of Eurofighter Typhoon in Operation Ellamy.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Peter Luff)]

Typhoon aircraft and Apache attack helicopters have performed very well in Operation Ellamy, proving their military worth and fulfilling all the operational tasks asked of them. Typhoon, in its first multi-role mission in providing both air defence and ground attack, has demonstrated exceptional levels of survivability and, in its ground attack role, a targeting capability with minimal collateral damage, proving that it is a truly formidable aircraft.

[Peter Luff]

The Apache has been on about 20 sorties with no known civilian casualties—an exceptional testimony to that aircraft. Typhoon is performing exceptionally well in Libya. My hon. Friend is right that it was originally conceived as an air defence aircraft; it is now in its first multi-role combat aircraft role, and it is performing superbly. As Wing Commander J Attridge, the operational Typhoon detachment commander said,

“the Typhoon has come of age”

over the skies of Libya and we are seeing the maturation of the RAF’s first multi-role combat fast jet aircraft since world war two. We are all delighted with its performance.

[Mr Carswell]

Given that historically we have invested many billions in cold war era Eurofighters, but perhaps a little less on the unmanned aerial vehicles we need, does the Minister have any plans to switch resources from the former to the latter?

[Peter Luff]

It is not an either/or situation. UAVs have their role to play, but Typhoon is not a cold war legacy; it has proved to be an exceptionally capable modern aircraft, taking on the world and proving its exceptional worth in Libya. I am very confident of success in the large number of ongoing export campaigns around the world. Typhoon is a remarkable modern aircraft with a very bright future ahead of it.