Yasmin Qureshi – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Yasmin Qureshi on 2015-11-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether UK Reapers have been made available for use by the US or other coalition partners in Syria for operations since January 2015.

Penny Mordaunt

No UK Reapers have been flown on missions by US personnel or those of any other Coalition nation in Syria since January 2015. US personnel have operated UK Reaper aircraft a small number of times to aid with the launch and recovery of the aircraft only, not the mission itself. A Memorandum of Understanding has been agreed between the UK and US Air Forces which allows the US to request the use of UK Reaper aircraft to conduct missions and vice versa, though to date this has not occurred. Such use by the US would be subject to UK permissions.