asked the Minister of Aviation what is the average time taken between the formulation of a requirement for a new aircraft and the aircraft coming into service with the Royal Air Force.

The times taken for typical aircraft now in service have ranged from 4½ years to 10½ years according to the nature of the requirement.

What is the Government's policy with respect to formulating requirements sufficiently far in advance that aircraft will be in service to meet the transport, and particularly the strategic transport, requirements of our Armed Forces?

The Staffs try to look as far ahead as they can. Most of our transport requirements are met by adaptations from the civil field The freighting side is rather different, because civil freighting has not developed as far as many people had hoped. As my hon. Friend knows, both the Belfast and the HS 681 are being developed on a purely military basis.