Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask Her Majesty's Government why they are reducing the RAF air fleet in Iraq and North-East Syria.

The Tornado will retire, as planned, in March 2019 after a long and illustrious contribution to British combat air power. A full range of ground attack capabilities have now been integrated onto the Typhoon aircraft under Project Centurion. Consequently, Tornado has been withdrawn from Operation Shader, handing over operations to Typhoon, with no reduction in the capability or effectiveness of the RAF's contribution to the Global Coalition against Daesh. As counter-Daesh operations evolve, we will keep our operational capability to meet the threat under review.