Lord Lee of Trafford
Liberal Democrat
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many Harrier GR7 remain in service; how many have been upgraded to GR9 standard; how many Harriers have been retired in each year since 1997; and how many of those were (a) scrapped, (b) cannibalised for spares, or (c) sold to third parties.
Lord Astor of Hever
Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip), The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence
All 44 Harrier aircraft currently in service with the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force have been upgraded from the GR7 to the GR9 variant. In addition, there are 14 GR9 and 6 GR7 aircraft currently awaiting decisions on disposal and one GR9 aircraft engaged on trials with QinetiQ.
The number of Harrier aircraft retired from service since 1997 are listed in the following table. All of these aircraft have been scrapped unless otherwise shown:
| Year | Number of Aircraft |
| 1997 | 4 |
| 1998 | 2 |
| 1999 | 4 |
| 2000 | 0 |
| 2001 | 0 |
| 2002 | 1 |
| 2003 | 0 |
| 2004 | 0 |
| 2005 | 11 |
| 2006 | 1 |
| 2007 | 0 |
| 2008 | 32 |
| 2009 | 23 |
| 2010 | 04 |
1 Aircraft has been sold.
2 Two aircraft have been cannibalised for spares but not yet scrapped.
3 One aircraft has been sold.
4 As at
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