UK based training for new Libyan Armed Forces

[Hangarshuffle]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/07/libya-nato-britain-training-army-al-Qaida


Posted at the risk of being not really relevant to aviation based web page. Mods delete it if you want.
This story is about the UK delivering military training to Libyan Army recruits at a place called Bassingbourn, a former US Air Force base (B17s) which has been taken out of mothballs for said task.


Seems a good thing I suppose.... The author does make the point that a lot of Libyan officers are maybe wary of the UK. I mean as I recall, first we trained Kaddafi in the UK in the 1960s (to be a potential goody), then he had a coup (he became a baddy ( I think?), then he was a very bad baddy supplying arms to the IRA/Lockerbie/nightclub bombings etc and we allowed bases for bombing him etc, then he became a goodie again with Mr Blair in the big tent, then he became a baddie again for some reason I now forget and we bombed him and them again.......now I think we need the Libyans to be goodies again (to us)>. (Wonder if my little dit there is of the standard of brief our PM gets...I sometimes wonder).


Anyway time will tell. Suppose flying training will follow on? Wonder who pays for all this? Us or them?


The sad cynic in me worries this will be another waste of time and treasure and it will simply become another long term failed state, this time right on the shores of the Med and not far from the holiday beaches, when you think about it.

[TheChitterneFlyer]

Wonder who pays for all this? Us or them?


Given the way in which our Foreign Office works I don't think the question is relevant. It'll be us; the Tax Payers!

TCF

[Jimlad1]

Very definitely them!

[Hangarshuffle]

I would have thought the Libyans pay but the original article doesn't say.

[Romeo Oscar Golf]

a place called Bassingbourn, a former US Air Force base (B17s

Not that it matters but Bassingbourn was long time home for the Canberra OCU. Started my real flying there in 1966.

[Mahogany_Bomber]

It was an Army Training Regiment (ATR) location until very recently so appears ideally suited for the task intended.

[vascodegama]

Isn't it also where Full Metal Jacket (at least part) was filmed?

[NutLoose]

They probably feel like turkey's being fattened up for Christmas.

[Wander00]

ROG - you and me both - started "Strike" course July 66

[Romeo Oscar Golf]

Just missed you Wander....was on my way to Singapore (45 Sqn Tengah)

[flipflopman RB199]

Not just the Army...

The Air Force Technical trainees have recently started a 2 year English Language course at Telford College, with a view to commencing training at Cosford in late 2015.

Strange world we live in...

[VinRouge]

Just for you film geeks, basingborne was the film location of the first half of full metal jacket. Don't believe me? Watch it and see what side of the road the stop signs and road markings are. And check out the dry ski slope in the background of the time immortal scene

" private pile, you climb obstacles like old people f@ck"

[A and C]

It was also the location for the original Memphis Bell doucumetry in 1944..... So that's two classic American war movies filmed at Bassingbourn.

[cliver029]

............And if you looked very carefully you could see that all the palm trees lined up along the back exit road in skips.

Something else the Bassingbourn hangers were used for was for some of the big rock groups to practice with big acoustics, ATC night could be really interesting when that was happening:ok:

[goudie]

I spent 4 years at Bassingbourn and never recognized it in the film, which I've watched several times. I also used to shoot at the Barton range

Some other interesting facts re. the locations, aircraft and weapons used in the filming


Courtesy wikipedia

'Kubrick shot the film in England: in Cambridgeshire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridgeshire), on the Norfolk Broads (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norfolk_Broads), and at the former Millennium Mills (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Mills) and Beckton Gas Works (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beckton_Gas_Works), Newham (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Borough_of_Newham) (east London). A former RAF (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF) and then British Army (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Army) base, Bassingbourn Barracks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bassingbourn_Barracks), doubled as the Parris Island Marine boot camp.[8] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Metal_Jacket#cite_note-rose-8) A British Army rifle range near Barton, outside Cambridge, was used in the scene where Private Pyle is congratulated on his shooting skills by Hartman. The disused Beckton Gas Works a few miles from central London portrayed the ruined city of Huế. Kubrick worked from still photographs of Huế taken in 1968 and found an area owned by British Gas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Gas_plc) that closely resembled it and was scheduled to be demolished.[11] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Metal_Jacket#cite_note-cahill-11) To achieve this look, Kubrick had buildings blown up and the film's art director used a wrecking ball to knock specific holes in certain buildings over the course of two months.[11] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Metal_Jacket#cite_note-cahill-11) Originally, Kubrick had a plastic replica jungle flown in from California but once he looked at it was reported to have said, "I don't like it. Get rid of it."[14] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Metal_Jacket#cite_note-watson-14) The open country is Cliffe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliffe-at-Hoo) marshes, also on the Thames (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Thames), with 200 imported Spanish palm trees[7] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Metal_Jacket#cite_note-clines-7) and 100,000 plastic tropical plants from Hong Kong (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong).[11] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Metal_Jacket#cite_note-cahill-11)
Kubrick acquired four M41 tanks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M41_Walker_Bulldog) from a Belgian army (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_army) colonel (a fan), and Westland Wessex (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westland_Wessex) helicopters painted Marine green to represent Marine Corps Sikorsky H-34 Choctaw (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_H-34_Choctaw) helicopters. Although the Wessex was a licensed derivative of the Sikorsky H-34, the Wessex substituted two gas turbine engines for the H-34's radial (piston) engine. This resulted in a much longer and less rounded nose than that of the Vietnam era H-34. Kubrick also obtained a selection of rifles, M79 grenade launchers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M79_grenade_launcher) and M60 machine guns (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M60_machine_gun) from a licensed weapons dealer.[8]' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Metal_Jacket#cite_note-rose-8)

[bosnich71]

Scenes from the film "Billion Dollar Brain" starring Michael Caine were also shot at Bassingbourn.
A large amount of film personnel spent a whole day filming various scenes of Canberras being bombed up, taking off etc. all on fake snow. I was one of about a dozen Airwork employees loaned to the film company for the day, unpaid extras I might add. Never mind we thought we'll go to the cinema, watch the film and see our moment of glory. The whole scene took about 10 seconds and people wonder why films cost so much to make. We all looked the same as each other due to cold weather gear with hoods up so it could have been anyone and so ended my dreams of a career in Hollywood. http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/infopop/icons/icon9.gif
The scenes in Billion Dollar Brain where the convoy is supposedly crossing a frozen lake and are bombed was filmed at Duxford .... also on fake snow, or should that be fake ice ?


P.s. Ref. Full Metal Jacket, if you look carefully at the background to the scenes of the Rookies on the assault course there are a few shots of the hangars which are a dead give away that it was not filmed at that Marine place in the States.


P.p.s. There were Wellingtons there before the Yanks and their B17's.

[phil9560]

Absolutely beautiful thread drift.The art of conversation.Its great!!

[ColinB]

Wonder who pays for all this? Us or them?

They have oil and will always eventually be our friends no matter who manages the country. As to overall cost they will eventually pay.

[Pontius Navigator]

They have oil and will always eventually be our friends no matter who manages the country. As to overall cost they will eventually pay.

Really?

Iran has oil.

I suspect we will pay/write off a lot of the costs (heating for instance) on the expectation that we will reap the benefits.

I remember we had Sudanese officers on my first course and the next course had Ghanaians. Not sure what benefits we got from the former. I do know one was sh1t scared of failing as he would have had to repay the cost of training. He failed! The other passed having done only the first 8 months of the nav course. The Sudanese had no need of navigators with astro or fast jet skills.

[NutLoose]

Odd isn't it, we go to hot dry arid countries to train to fight in those type of countries, and they come to green, wet, leafy Uk.

[ShotOne]

"Iran has oil..." Are you saying that becausethey have had an unfriendly government they will be our enemies until the end of time? For many years they weren't our enemies and we cooperated in training and other areas -and sold billions of ££'s of kit to them into the bargain,

I'm surprised at the mostly negative undercurrent to this story. Surely helping them rebuild themselves and pass on the positives of our armed forces, probably for less cost than a single storm shadow, has to be a good thing?

[Rossian]

.....training the Iraqi air force officers at South Cerney when I was there in nineteen hundred and frozen to death. I wonder how they fared in GW1?

The Ancient Mariner

[Pontius Navigator]

History is full of stories where we armed our enemy.

[PieFlyer]

Hi all

Newbie here so be gentle. Joined so I could post that the MoD seems to have built a north-african style training village on one of the disposals around the old bassingbourn peri track. Flew near Bassingbourn at the weekend on a microlight training flight and spotted it.

I attended a 40's style Big Band evening with the Memphis Belle orchestra in one of the hangars 6+ years ago. Somewhat less exciting than hard rock or Full Metal Jacket...

The original crontrol tower houses a small museum with remnants of B-17s and the bent merlin from a crashed P-51 inside.


PieFlyer