King's, it is indeed true that a fair amount of the work that used to be done by Boscombe in the past is now done at the Contractor's facilities, but it is still undertaken by DERA staff as MoD's representatives to allow MoD to be an "intelligent customer". There is also a heck of a lot of work going on at Boscombe itself - surely you've seen all the new stuff flying about, and trust me there's more to come.
Don't believe all you read in the Journal - Brize are unlikely to let the FSTA contract go without a fight, and things are rarely as simple as they might appear. An application for planning permission does not mean squat in the long run, as in another context I am personally painfully aware!
The privatisation of Aircraft Test & Evaluation, along with much of the rest of DERA, is bound to change the relationship with MoD, but it is AT&E's aim to ensure that they are still the centre of expertise that MoD calls upon first for *independent* T&E. We can (and possibly will!) argue for some time quite what independent means in this context, but my view is that Boscombe should continue to do what it has been doing for nearly 60 years now, and that is looking out for the interests of the front line aircrew (and the taxpayer, of course).
AT&E certainly will not be gone by 2005 unless Our Tone's meteor detection system fails to seek and destroy the incoming Big One, since there is a heck of a lot of work already coming our way over that timeframe.
Beyond that who knows, but despite the bad rep Boscombe may have with some in the Front Line and in certain parts of DPA (some of it - the minority, honest! - deserved, it pains me to say), the place would be sorely missed if the Contractors had free rein let me assure you.
I am by no means a cheer-leader for DERA as it stands, but I am very much a supporter of the ethos that it is *essential* MoD has an independant arbiter for Aircraft T&E (and of course R&D, which with the demise of Farnborough & Bedford airfields happens mostly at BD these days). I am certainly not alone in this either. Once again the place is heading for a significant change with Privatisation, but I cannot see how this will be the end of it as a working field, albeit the emphasis may change slightly. It's quite possible there may be *more* work at BD rather than the less you imply if we have free rein to undertake more commercial work.
Now, if only we can get our costs to the Customer down...
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BossEyed 8-)