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.

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.