The decision to close Lyneham was clearly a political one of the 'close a station = save money' kind, so they got someone to write the report (this is the answer so now write the justification) who was part of the Brize Mafia, put in a Stn Cdr at Lyneham who wasn't a Herc man so would have no qualms about closing the place, and Robert's your Dad's brother. Not enough pan space at Bzn (only 60% of the required space even after the build), only one runway (that gets blacked when it rains too much as in 2007), not enough single & families accommodation (there's plenty at a soon to be disused airfield just south of Swindon), an airfield with a hostile local population who'll relish all the MCT, NVG & other local training (there's a potential RLG just south of Swindon, where the Bzn aircraft like to do their training, especially at weekends because they can't at their home base due to all the noise complaints), these are all but minor concerns, because closing airfields saves money, even though you have to spend millions in added infrastructure to bring Bzn up to a lesser spec than is required, and you can't put loss of operational effectiveness on the balance sheet. Losing Lyneham also means losing a close diversion airfield, as well as another airfield with crash cat 4A that doesn't cost a fortune to go to.
Should Lyneham close then the army will almost certainly will move in, as they have at just about every other airfield that's closed, so it stays on the MOD budget anyway. The local population around Lyneham is remarkably supportive of the station & very tolerant of the disturbance it causes, it seems incredible to me that the RAF will squander that support & move the C130s to an airfield that has the opposite. If we buy more
Js to fill the gap left by the cancellation of A400 that could up the task for Lyneham as a whole, 30 aircraft and 3 Sqns is more than a number of stations posess, and if we need more units to fill capacity how about moving 45(R) Sqn in, most of their graduates move to the area & most of the QFIs come from here too, leave Cranwell to EFT & Nav trg.
This is a station closure too far, and should not go ahead. Perhaps the Leader of the Opposition in whose constituency Bzn resides would like to say if he will confirm the closure if he becomes PM. I appreciate that he will have some tough financial decisions to make if and when he takes office but the closure will cost money in the short to medium term before any savings result, and the economic effect on North Wiltshire will be substantial.