Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent discussions he has had with (a) private and (b) allied training providers on increasing pilot training capacity.

The Royal Air Force (RAF) Directorate of Flying Training continues to engage on a regular basis with private and allied training providers regarding pilot training capacity.

There have been recent discussions with private training providers, in line with the Strategic Defence Review 2025, recommendation 48d. These discussions have been focused on assessing the cost-effectiveness and viability of private training providers for elements of multi-engine pilot training to meet a short-term increase in front-line demand for multi-engine pilots due to the introduction of new Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) platforms within the RAF.

For allied training providers, military engagement is conducted through the NATO Flight Training Europe (NFTE) high visibility project, as well as Air Staff talks with strategic partner nations, Due to the commercial tender process and pending defence engagement technical agreements, it is not possible to disclose more specific details of discussions with specified private and allied training providers.