The Royal Air Force currently has 485 fixed-wing aircraft in service, with 86 undergoing long-term maintenance and 27 held in storage, according to a written parliamentary answer.
Responding to a question from Baroness Goldie, Defence Minister Lord Coaker said that 86 of the RAF’s fixed-wing aircraft are in maintenance for longer than three months, while a further 27 are in what is described as “fleet management storage”.
The RAF also operates 86 rotary-wing aircraft, of which 17 are in long-term maintenance. None of the rotary fleet are currently in storage.
The Ministry of Defence said extended maintenance periods are a routine part of fleet management, noting that “detailed depth maintenance inspections… often take a period greater than three months to complete.”
Aircraft scheduled for retirement are not included in the figures, as they are no longer considered to be in service, the minister added. The figures offer a snapshot with a significant portion of aircraft across both fleets undergoing maintenance cycles.
In Museums ?
Starmer’s magnificent government, so concerned about defense, is probably already assessing how many of those aircraft can be retired or sold. At least another 10 A400s and about 100 additional fighter jets are needed. Of course, with this government, that’s impossible; we already know that.
Drones and training aircraft should be reported seperately, but this is standard Gov BS fiddling numbers to make nice sound bite for media.
That drones and other things, bluffing the numbers with semi honest story, That included 3 AWAC’s in bits in hanger and how many of deep maintance aircraft will fly again ?. A press release evey day from the MOD statiing something thats nearly true and fiddling the books, every day while no orders, low ammo, and a delayed DIP that will fall well short as most expect.
My old service is heading towards the same fate as the RN and without new orders very soon the 100 FGR4s we have are going to be fragged given op commitments and tempo.
Even under Harold Wilson, the RAF had over 2000 aircraft…
Sounds impressive.
That figure will include Grob Tutor, Grob Prefects, all of which are either COMO or COCO, and probably the glider fleet as well!
The same phenomenon is evident in the RAF Squadrons pages on the official website.
Once, including in books when Internet didn’t exist, only flying Squadrons were included, and things like TSW. Now, with the widespread renaming of supporting ground elements with Squadron numberplates long lost from the flying roster, all are included, which inflates the figures nicely to the uninformed perusing those pages.
It’s all spin. Subtle, and in the best tradition, technically true, they are Squadrons and the Gliders have a fixed wing.
But come on…..
And breaking news? The BBMF Lancaster is being adapted to carry Storm Shadow. Honest, including gliders and trainers in overall numbers is a sick joke. I left regular service in 1980, we had 670 active combat aircraft then. All in service. Like all UK assets now, a shadow and distant memory.
Remember who caused this, politicians.