RAF leaving St Mawgan?

[Heliport]

Heard word in the bazaars that the MoD is about to announce the closure of RAF St Mawgan - SAR OCU going to Valley.
Is it true?

[leopold bloom]

The Ministry of Defence is to mothball RAF St Mawgan in April 2007 with the loss of 215 jobs, prompting concern over the future of Cornwall's main airport at Newquay. 11-Mar-2005 Press Announcement

It has been on the cards for quite some time, no secret. St Mawgan may be mothballed to await the arrival of the JSF, in the meantime 203 Sqn will move to Valley. Everyone at St Mawgan is looking forward with unrestrained joy to the move.

[[email protected]]

Yes, for the sake of someone's 'vision' we are going to send an OCU that works well to a place it won't be able to (unless we get rid of all the Hawks at Valley) and move the 2 SAR Sqn HQs from their present sites, also to Valley. Popular? oh no. Cost effective? A minimum of £10 mil (most of the sums are still being worked out). Likely to happen within the timescale?The contract for the new build isn't let yet.
As for Newquay airport - Restormel Council can't afford to run it without RAF ATC and Fire and Rescue assistance - mothballing for JSF is increasingly unlikely so watch out for the runway lighting, ATC hardware and the ILS to be removed and relocated.
This grand plan comes hard on the heels of the Helicopter Maintenance Flight jumping through hoops to improve their output (which they have done successfully) to be then told all the servicing is going to industry at Fleetlands and all first line SAR engineering is being contracted out.
The SAR force needs rescuing...help!

[Flying Lawyer]

Watch the news for an MoD announcement.
Who knows ..... maybe even today.

[Thomas coupling]

IMHO this must be the beginning of the end for mil SAR as we know it, surely.

Bristow untill 2007, CHC 2007 - 2012, then......................

Total civilianisation of UK SAR.

Makes sense really.

Mil SAR developed to rescue downed airmen spend 95% of their time rescuing civvies on and offshore. That from a civvy perspective, is to be applauded and welcomed. BUT,

we all know that the mil leak like the proverbial seive, financially. Don't know how much a mil SAR outfit costs but you can bet your bottom dollar it costs far too much - mainly because of the infrastructure in place which supports this activity.


COCO is the only logical best value way to go - let's get on with it eh?

:ouch:

[Heliport]

http://www.jippii.co.uk/shr/dcms/game/games/75300.gif

[NickLappos]

Thomas,
The real issue is one of military preparedness - how many combat rescues will Bristow do for RAF pilots ina combat zone?

The US maintains a blend of civil and mil rescue units, and uses the civil rescue mission for mil units as a way to maintain preparedness for war.

I don't know if the closure of an RAF base is wise or not, but discounting the training/preparedness value of civil rescue for RAF is certainly not wise.

[mallardpi]

Nick

How many Combat SAR missions have the RAF UK SAr crews done in the last 20 years?

None

The RAF SAR Force does not go to war.

Not the Gulf, Not Bosnia, nowhere

[Flying Lawyer]

Extracts from the announcement in the House of Commons 12:22 yesterday.
Taken from Hansard: Defence Airfields Review
Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Adam Ingram):

I should like to inform the House about developments in the defence airfields review.

The review is taking the form of a series of business cases. Two of those have addressed the basing requirements for new aircraft—the joint combat aircraft and the Nimrod MRA4.
The JCA is due progressively to replace the Harrier fleet towards the middle of the next decade and the Nimrod MRA4 is expected to replace the Nimrod MR2 from around the end of this decade.

On 10 March this year ……. RNAS Yeovilton, RAF Kinloss and RAF Wittering were discounted from further consideration. The study then concentrated on five locations—RAF Cottesmore in Rutland, RAF Leeming in North Yorkshire, RAF Lossiemouth in Moray, RAF Marham in Norfolk and RAF St. Mawgan in Cornwall.

After careful consideration of the options, I have decided that the initial base for the JCA will be RAF Lossiemouth, currently home to the Tornado GR4, as it offers the most operationally satisfactory and cost-effective solution.

RAF St. Mawgan was not selected because the business case demonstrated that it was an expensive option. I announced in March that that station would go into care and maintenance from April 2007 following the relocation of the Sea King helicopters currently based there. In the light of my decision on JCA basing, I can now confirm that there is no long-term RAF Strike Command requirement for the airfield. We shall therefore be considering alternative defence uses or possible disposal. The future basing of the remaining units at RAF St. Mawgan will also be considered.”

Later in the debate ……

“As far as I am aware ….. the announcement is welcomed by people in the area (St Mawgan) because they are seeking to build on the commercial aspect of the Newquay Cornwall airport. It is likely that that could have not easily coexisted with a military base. The announcement has been welcomed, by and large, by the local community—I appreciate that it is not unanimous—because it is better for the growth of the local economy.”

[[email protected]]

The most interesting part of the Hansard extract is that they have left themselves room to manoeuvre and leave the SARF HQ and OCU at St Mawgan - that would make 99% of the SAR Force happy and save the taxpayer a few million quid into the bargain.

Probably half of the real estate at St Mawgan could be sold off to industry whilst retaining all the RAF airfield elements for the Sea King OCU and incidentally keeping Newquay International going.

[cyclic]

Crab

Make your mind up, just a minute ago you were asking for a job with CHC. The chances of St Mawgan staying the base for the RAF SARF are slim to non-existent. With your sister Sqn completely unserviceable yet again the writing is on the wall. I feel very sorry for those that are left to deal with this unworkable situation; now, which cv is yours?

[Helibelly]

As a product of St Mawgan, I think it would be a crying shame to close what is a very nice base. But that to one side, how much would it really cost to move the SKOCU to Valley? Alot is the answer, just to move the sim would cost millions, then there would be the pain of getting people to actually agree to go to Valley and work there (great base for a SAR, lousy place to live). But when have financial considerations stopped a-holes in the ministry from making short sighted decisions based on flawed logic? Unless they know something about the future of mil SAR that we only suspect! Cue conspiracy theroies and a big bag of 'I told you so'.

[[email protected]]

Cyclic - I would dearly love to stay in the RAF and fly SAR in the SW (either operationally or instructing at the OCU) but if that can't be so then I would join the queue at CHC's human resources dept with my CV.

As for 202 - the Mk3s are shagged out and the SARF are paying the price for spending cuts in the 90s when a whole fleet of 3As could have been procured and saved a shedload of hassle and heartache in the last 10 years. The OOS date of 2017 is laughable enough for the 3A let alone the 3. With the contactorisation of first line and closure of St Mawgan, I think the writing is on the wall for the Mil SARF regardless of the 'offical message' that the MOD still love us and care about us.