BRITAIN'S AIR DEFENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 19, 24 January 1938, Page 9

BRITAIN'S AIR DEFENCE

MUCH STRONGER NOW

THREE YEARS' EXPANSION

(British Official Wireless.) . RUGBY, January 22. The first-line strength of the aircraft of the Royal Ajr Force and the Fleet Air Arm, 'including squadrons overseas, is now 2031, which is rather more than double the strength before the rearmament programme was undertaken. sThe first-line strength at Home of the Metropolitan Air Force (home defence squadrons and coastal command} is 154?, or nearly three times the preexpansion figure. FirSt-line bombers stationed at Home are 840, an increase of more than 150 per cent, on 1935. General reconnaissance aircraft, composed of seven land-plane squadrons and certain flying-boat units, now make up a first-line fleet of 162 aircraft. , These figures, which do not xeveal the strength, of the reserve behind the first line, indicate how much more formidable in the air Britain now is than, three years ago. They do not reveal the actual increase in striking power, as a large proportion of service squadrons are armed with planes Which are faster, carry heavier loads, fly further, and are move efficint than the aircraft they displaced..