Lossiemouth, Leuchars & Kinloss suffer losses aswell as St Mawgan (Merged)

[Razor61]

From the BBC:-

Cornwall airbase to be mothballed

More than 200 jobs are to go at a Cornwall RAF base when it is mothballed in two years.
All flying at RAF St Mawgan will end in April 2007 and the future of two air regiments based there is also in doubt.

It is also unclear what will happen to the county's main airport at Newquay which shares a runway with the base and uses its air traffic control staff.

MPs and business leaders said the closure of the base and airport would badly effect the county's economy.

'Huge implications'

The base near Newquay is to be mothballed for five years from 2007 pending a decision on the possible deployment of new combat aircraft in 2012. A total of 215 jobs will go.

The move was discussed in the House of Commons during a question by the North Cornwall MP Paul Tyler on Thursday.

Mr Tyler complained to the Leader of the House, Peter Hain, that the region's media and not local MPs were the first to hear the news.

He said: "Why should the local media be informed ahead of constituency members? Isn't that a discourtesy to the House as a whole."

Mr Hain apologised for the incident.

But even if the airfield is reopened in 2012, there are questions as to how it will affect commercial flights while not in military use.

BBC South West Business Correspondent Neil Gallacher said: "It has huge implications because this is Cornwall's only civil airport to speak of.

"Given how important air travel has become in recent years, if there was any threat to it, it would be a major blow to Cornwall's economy as a whole."

'Considerable future'

Last week, Cornwall County Council announced multi-million pound extension plans at Newquay.

Council Leader John Lobb said: "We have gone ahead with the plans with knowledge of making immense progress and doing a great deal to improve air links. We can see a considerable future for it."

The council said it was to press for an meeting with Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon.

Truro MP Matthew Taylor added that he believed commercial flights were vital to the area's economy, and Falmouth-Camborne MP Candy Atherton added she was convinced there would be job losses when flying stopped in 2007.

The government said it was looking to see if civilian planes could still fly from Newquay Airport. "
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I believe the USN have atleast 500 personnel at the JMF on base don't they?

[6foottanker]

It's been on the cards for some time, but the Yanks won't be leaving in a hurry. I'm guessing that the airport will still function, maybe still with an ATC det there. The writing was on the wall with the moving of the Sea King OCU to Valley. It will still get a regular airing for large exercises though, i expect.

[totalwar]

Wow - I was at StM last week and nearly got run over by some stray tumbleweed rolling down the main...... bout time this scandalous waste of money was closed.

[BEagle]

It's bound to close - it's in far too nice a place after all!

All the other pleasant English coastal military airfields have closed - Tangmere, Thorney Island, Chivenor etc, so it looks like it'll be curtains for St Mawgan as well.

[Always_broken_in_wilts]

TW,

Might I suggest you add the missing "nke" to your handle..........as it is plain to all of us on here that would sum you up perfectly:rolleyes:

all spelling mistakes are "df" alcohol induced

[P-T-Gamekeeper]

The recent basing study was to decide which of Lyneham/Brize/St Mawgan should close, & bizarrely they chose the busiest airfield in the RAF.

If St Mawgan is now to close, doe this mean Lyneham will no longer become the latest army barracks?

[Roger the cabin boy]

RAF Lyneham - future home of the RAF/RN Chinook Force dontcha know!

[P-T-Gamekeeper]

Didn't realise the RN had chinooks?

Surely not a tacical airbase - that would be too sensible. Its also close to the plain, so would be too convenient for our lords and masters to consider.

Surely when we are down to 43,000, we only need one flying station. I believe LHR employs @80,000! Of course we will still have 3 HQ's and a few supply depots.

[Razor61]

A long while ago, the Chinook force was slated to go to Yeovilton once the SHars move out. Lots of hangar space needs filling.

[Razor61]

BBC:-

About 1,000 RAF workers in Scotland are to lose their jobs under UK Government plans to cut the armed forces.
RAF Lossiemouth will suffer 700 job cuts, the base at Kinloss 180 and a further 160 will go at RAF Leuchars.

Angus Robertson, the Nationalist MP for Moray, said it was "a sad day" and criticised the Ministry of Defence for the way the cuts were announced.

On Thursday, the Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram outlined in a written statement where those cuts would fall.

Under the MoD's Future Capabilities white paper, he said the RAF's total strength was to be cut from 48,900 to 41,000 by 2008.

It's utterly scandalous the way the MoD has allowed this news to come out

Mr Robertson said the RAF workers deserved better treatment from the MoD.

"It's a sad, sad day that we are going to see hundreds of jobs lost in Moray and the rest of Scotland," he said.

"It's utterly scandalous the way the MoD has allowed this news to come out. It has manipulated parliament and manipulated the service community. It's utterly unacceptable.

'Personal blow'

"I'm raising this in the House of Commons as a point of order.

"Quite how people feel they are being treated when they know their jobs are being lost, it must be devastating for them."

The Leader of the House of Commons, Peter Hain, said the defence secretary was aware of the concerns raised over the job losses in Scotland.

Alasdair Urquhart, vice-convener of Moray Council, said the cuts were "a major blow" to the local economy and he believed Moray had suffered a disproportionate number of losses.

Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat MP for North East Fife, which includes RAF Leuchars, criticised the government for announcing the job losses in a written statement.


RAF Lossiemouth will be forced to shed 700 jobs

He said: "For every one of these 160 people, this will be a personal blow and inevitably the job losses will have an affect on the local economy.

"All the more reason for the defence minister to come to the House of Commons to explain why these proposals are being made."

Conservative defence spokesman Gerald Howarth said the job losses could leave the RAF overstretched.

He said: "The public are becoming accustomed to this mantra from this government of 'modernisation and efficiency' - words it uses to mask what invariably amounts to cuts and overstretch."

Last July, Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon announced the biggest set of cuts for a generation, with the RAF bearing the brunt with a loss of 7,500 personnel.


:( :( :( :( :( :( :(

[althenick]

Interestingly BBC Scotland had managed to find out that some of the JSF's would be stationed at Lossie thus securing the bases future for the MEDIUM Term (Whatever the hell that means) The question is do they mean the Joint Force 2000 lot or has a decision been made on the replacement for Tornado?

[Widger]

Newquay is not Kurnow's only airport!

[Navy_Adversary]

BBC Midlands ceefax are reorting around 500 job losses at Cottesmore, Waddington and Wittering.

[newswatcher]

BBC Midlands ceefax are reporting around 500 job losses at Cottesmore, Waddington and Wittering So are BBC South ceefax, also mentioning those well-known Sussex airfields at Cottesmore and Wittering! :mad:

[bluetail]

Its worse than that, staff at ISK are being given extremely short notice take it or get sacked postings, I heard today of someone who got just 28 days for a posting overseas into continental Europe, kids boarding all the usual stuff, the redundancy package that was offered was so pathetic it forced this person to take the posting.

Additionally Ingram bottled out of his visit to ISK & ISL with the pathetic excuse of government duties.....security bill stuff...Angus Robertson our local MP was rightfully scathing of Ingram having offered a parliamentry pairing.

Its gonna hurt this part of the world no end,

BT

[Archimedes]

As this (http://www.raf.mod.uk/news/news_0503_05.html) and this (http://www.raf.mod.uk/news/news_0503_06.html), seem relevant to the future of some of the airfields mentioned in this thread, I thought I'd post them in case people hadn't been on the RAF website recently and thus not seen either.

[L1A2 discharged]

So ... Lossie to close 2015, ISK to be safe until "at least 2013" .. anyone betting on constituency holders influencing the future ..

[WE Branch Fanatic]

The first phase has also concluded that RAF Kinloss, RAF Wittering and RNAS Yeovilton are less likely to be future JCA bases; primarily because of environmental issues at Wittering and Kinloss and the length of the runways at Yeovilton and Kinloss.

What enviromental issues?
Runway length? What? For a STOVL aircraft?

Why do I get the feeling the basing will depend on one thing - getting votes for some Blairite MP?

[BEagle]

Probably means there are rich locals at Wittering and both Wittering and Yeovilton are in nice parts of the world, so likely to be under threat.

But how runway length can be an issue to the STOVL JSF is indeed a bit of a mystery....

[Big Tudor]

Haven't Wittering just been through a lengthy wrangle with a local landowner about 'them terribly noisy flying machines'. Can't remember the outcome though.
I would agree that ISK isn't really suited to fast jet ops. Taking off over the Findhorn Bay into a flock of bleary eyed canada geese is not the sort of start to the day you want. :sad:

[LPD]

The likelihood of birdstrikes when taking off from R26 at Kinloss, didn't stop all of the Lossie Tornado Wing holding Kinloss as a Bolthole last year. Having a brand new bird radar system and some basic procedures in place minimizes the risk (the geese don't always stick to their CTOTs though!)

Don't Tornado/Jag etc at LL have a significant risk of birdstrike anyway?

[totalwar]

Newquay is not Kurnow's only airport yeah it is...opps, was