To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will publish the (a) dates on which the 180 Saudi military personnel attended training at the Defence College of Technical Training at RAF Cosford in 2019, (b) course curriculum and (c) ranks and roles of those military personnel who received that training.
Answered on
9 July 2020
Please see the table below for the various dates and courses on which Saudi military personnel received training at the Defence College of Technical Training at RAF Cosford. It should be noted that the 180 personnel did not all attend the same courses.
Course Name | Start Date | Finish Date |
Aircraft Mechanical Technician Course Mechanics (M20) | November 2017 | January 2019 |
Aircraft Mechanical Technician Course Mechanics (M21) | December 2017 | February 2019 |
Weapons Technician Course (W13) | October 2017 | February 2019 |
Avionics Technician Course (AV19) | January 2018 | March 2019 |
Aircraft Mechanical Technician Course Mechanics (M22) | March 2018 | April 2019 |
Weapons Technician Course (W14) | February 2018 | May 2019 |
Aircraft Mechanical Technician Course Mechanics (M23) | May 2018 | July 2019 |
Aircraft Mechanical Technician Course Mechanics (M24) | August 2018 | August 2019 |
Avionics Technician Course (AV20) | October 2018 | September 2019 |
Avionics Technician Course (AV21) | December 2018 | November 2019 |
Weapons Technician Course (W15) | August 2018 | December 2019 |
Aircraft Mechanical Technician Course Mechanics (M25) | May 2019 | August 2020 |
Engineer Officer Foundation Course (56) | January 2019 | July 2019 |
Engineer Officer Foundation Course (57) | March 2019 | October 2019 |
The roles of personnel being trained is a matter for the Royal Saudi Air Force. Therefore, we do not hold information relating to specific roles. However, the courses are attended by technicians.
I am withholding the information relating to course curriculum as disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice both commercial interests and international relations between the United Kingdom and another State.
Additionally, I am withholding the ranks of the personnel under our obligations in relation to the protection of confidentiality when handling a small data set.