Nominations for 10 Super Stations

[whowhenwhy]

As the White Paper obviously spells doom for the Service as we know it, reducing manning to about 40,000, 10 flying stn's, half the original order for Typhoon, early OSD for Jaguar etc; who'd like to place bets on the stns' we'll have left?

St Mawgan, Brize Norton, Cottesmore, Marham, Coningsby, Waddington, Valley, Cranwell (& Barkston) Leuchars and Lossiemouth would be my bet!

Give it 10 years and most MOBs in UK will be almost purely civilianized and we'll then simply have Sqn's and TAC everything else!

There is one good thing that'll come out of it though! We'll be getting rid of one heck of a lot of scribblies!:ok:

[Toddington Ted]

Get rid of Scribblies? Don't you believe it:ok:

[Biggus]

whowhenwhy

You obviuosly haven't been in the RAF very long. I have no doubt it will be the scribblies who decides who goes, and it won't be them. Especially not after the success of the 'tactical scribblies' in the latest Gulf War.

I also predict that we will lose almost no officers of Air Rank. I believe (much in the same way that the NHS has more managers than hospital beds) we already have enough engineering officers to have a Sqn Ldr Eng in charge of every aircraft engine in the RAF!!!

Let the average JO take some pruning shears to the RAF and we will save you a fortune with no change in capability!!

[Red Line Entry]

You could be right Biggus about the numbers of Engineer Officers per engine. However, before we go overboard, worth bearing in mind that I think we have just under 6000 aircrew (of all flavours) for around 920 powered aircraft!!

[Jimlad]

Of course if we scrapped all the aircraft types and bases just think of how much money we would save to spend on scribblies.


Didnt the PM BLiar say in an interview that there would be no troop cuts?

[BEagle]

10 super stations?

Chivenor
Thorney Island
Abingdon
Tangmere
Biggin Hill


That's 5 for a start!

[Gainesy]

Akronelli...but in 1970.:(

[SirToppamHat]

I reckon Valley, Waddo, Coningsby, Marham, Honington, Cranwell, Innsworth, Kinloss, Lossiemouth and Brize.

Oh and er Scampton, for Tac Blah and the CRC.

You're all Really Useful Engines!

[DuckDodgers]

Well we're obviously talking frontline flying stations here then:

Brize - Trucky/AAR world

Kinloss - Nimrod and FMPA (let's face MRA4 is not gonna happen)

Waddo - ISTAR bods, is there enough room for MPA as well??

Marham - GR4 mafia

Coningsby - Typhoon blah

Leuchars - More Typhoon blah

Cotesmore - Harrier gang and then JSF?

Lossie - Move all fixed wing flying trg here?

That leaves 2 spare for anything unforseen, like we actually get the numbers they are now saying......hmmmm

[tradewind]

This is a first - Valley being called a 'super station'!

[RubiC Cube]

DD

From the RN - Cottesmore/Wittering to close, all SF at Yeovilton. JSF at Scampton?

[rivetjoint]

No helicopters in the future then?

[MrBernoulli]

DuckDodgers,

To add to your reason for Marham being one of the ten - it's right next door to Sandringham. When I was at Marham many years ago it was muted that for that reason alone i.e. convenience of the Royals, it would likely never close.

[BillHicksRules]

Why keep Lossie and Kinloss?

Why not look at some joint service stations too?

Cheers

BHR

[Spugford]

DuckDodger,

What other types of useful RAF station are there?!

Sorry, just couldn't resist.

Merry TAC xmas to u all.

[STANDTO]

Jurby, you keep forgetting about Jurby

Blah

[Biggus]

Red Line Entry

I would be the first to agree that we have too many senior aircrew officers, S/L and above, sitting in MOD for 20+ years doing b#*gger all. I would be more than happy to get rid of some of them. However, lets take your numbers, 6000 aircrew for 920 aircraft.

First of all that works out at 6.5 aircrew per aircraft. Let us assume that the average crew per aircraft is 3 (standard fast jet, Tornado, being 2 man, but the single seaters, Jag, Harrier, etc being offset by the big crewed multis E-3D, VC-10, C-130 etc to such an extent as to drag the average above 2). After all there are as many C-130s as Jags!

Then allow a ratio of a minimum of 1.5 crews per aircraft to keep them flying continually in wartime (BA work on 6-7 crews per jet to keep them going!! When I was last at Lyneham there were 100 crews for 50 a/c, but that was a few years ago!). This gives us a minimum of 4.5 aircrew per aircraft. This means we have 1840 aircrew too many, which probably equates to the manning of MOD and Mod PE! As I said before, cut away!!

[insty66]

Let the average JO take some pruning shears to the RAF and we will save you a fortune with no change in capability!!
I wouldn''t let the average JO near anything sharp...ever;) If you had said however let a sensible Flt Sgt or WO sort it out then you would get results.

The top ten are fairly obvious with assorted chopper ops dotted around but I've heard that Marham is touted to be the second/third line Tornado (GR&F) base and all the GR operations are to run from Lossie (note no use of the sqn word)
Of course it's all rumours:hmm:

ps did anyone hear about Marham running out of money this year?
see above

[RRAAMJET]

Northolt (for much the same reason as Marham)
Benson - the station that refused to die...
Alcatraz South Seas...'cos the Bennies don't want the Argies to sh@g their sheep
RAF Club, Piccadilly, will become HQ Steak n' Kidney Pie Grp
Boscombe - 'cos for years there's going to be a f**k of a lot of sorting-out work on Typhoon
And a bunch of stations connected by the A-1 vital to solo-stude navigation confusion...some of them manned solely by rock-apes.

[16 blades]

You can bet that all 10 will be Stns that we have previously closed down as being 'surplus to requirements' (Scampton / Church Fenton, anyone??), that they will all need extensive building work to bring them up to the latest Commune of Europe regulations against offensive smells in the workplace, and they will all be nowhere near anywhere that people will actually want to live (Scotland, Oxford and East Anglia anyone??) - thus solving the 'compulsory redundacy' problem at a stroke, whilst costing more than the alleged 'savings' required by the White Paper to 'modernise' our defences. Genius, as always, brought to you , as always, by the Retired CND Members Refuge, otherwise known as the 'Labour Party'. Never mind, maybe all those left jobless by the changes should try to run the wrong way through the channel tunnel, pick up a couple of random kids on the way and destroy their passports, claiming the only english word they know is 'Asylum' - BINGO! - £30k a year in benefits, a free house, and F&*k all chance of ever being sent anywhere remotely dangerous!

[Flypro]

Surely all the Frispland stations should now close - before we rebuild the wall.

[Jobza Guddun]

"ps did anyone hear about Marham running out of money this year?"

Ah, wouldn't be anything to do with the fact that there is not enough accommodation there for Junior Ranks would it? Thus the station is spending thousands of pounds a month on ERA so singlies have got somewhere to live? And with that 32 man room being fully utilised too.....

Suppose thats the Gym and Sgts Mess expansion gone then?

Come and see Marham if you want even a basic idea of what Brize will be like after Lyneham goes.....

Oh well, at least by moving first line to Tossiemouth they could solve the manpower cut and money problems with the deluge of PVR applications they'll receive!!

PS if the RAF needs to save money, why don't we all just work weekends, and have the weekdays off? That should also cut down on the number of court cases from the "I want the RAF to work round my childrens school hours" brigade.:}

Do have a fine festive period everybody wherever Tony has you and whatever he has you doing.
:ok: