Fleetlands to be Sold

[Razor61]

bbc.co.uk

MoD helicopter repair site sold

Lynx helicopters are among those repaired at Fleetlands
A company in Hampshire that provides helicopter maintenance to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is to be privatised in a £17m deal.
Union leaders have warned of strike action over the government's decision to sell the Defence Aviation Repair Agency (Dara) facility at Fleetlands.

The MoD said the sale to Canadian-owned Vector Aerospace will guarantee the future of 350 jobs.

A facility at Almondbank in Perthshire, Scotland, is also being sold off.

The Fleetlands facility, near Gosport, provides maintenance, repair and overhaul support for the MoD Chinook (CH-47), Lynx and Sea King helicopters.

'Increase staff'

Defence minister Baroness Taylor said: "In selling Dara we are confident that we are securing a long-term future for the business.

"This is the best result for defence, for our Armed Forces, and for the employees."

Vector Aerospace chairman Don Jackson said: "We are looking forward to growing the level of support that we are providing to the UK MoD and to working with the employees at Almondbank and Fleetlands to create a centre of excellence in European helicopter maintenance.

"We have expansion plans and hope to increase our staff numbers as appropriate."

[ORAC]

DefenseNews: Canada’s Vector To Buy Portions of U.K. Government’s DARA
(http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=3356837&C=europe)

LONDON — The U.K. government has confirmed it is to sell the rotary wing and components businesses of the state-owned Defence Aviation and Repair Agency (DARA) to Canadian maintenance company Vector Aerospace.

The two sides announced Feb. 5 they had entered into a definitive purchase and sale agreement transferring helicopter repair and maintenance facilities at Fleetlands in Southern England and a helicopter component repair operation at Almondbank, Scotland. The deal, costing the company 17 million pounds ($33.5 million), is expected to be completed by the end of March.

The centerpiece of the acquisition is the 34-year deal Fleetlands has to conduct maintenance on British military Chinooks and agreements to undertake similar work on the Sea King and current variants of the Lynx until they go out of service in the next decade or so.

The sale is part of a wider restructuring of Ministry of Defence-owned maintenance and repair businesses in the air and land sectors.

Vector is best known for its maintenance and repair work in Canada and the United States. The company had 168 million pounds in sales in 2006, dominated by its engine repair activities, much of that in the civil sector. Its activities in the United Kingdom until now have been confined to an engine maintenance and repair business, Sigma Aerospace. Based just outside London, the business primarily services fixed-wing aircraft engines used by the Royal Air Force on its C-130 Hercules and VC-10 fleets.

Don Jackson, Vector’s chief executive and president, said the acquisition of the DARA activities was a significant expansion by the company into the military structures market.

Vector was named preferred bidder last July but has been locked in what Armed Forces Minister Bob Ainsworth described Feb. 5 as “extended consultation” with lawmakers, trades unions and the government itself over the sale. In addition, one lawmaker here raised the issue of Vector’s size as a reason for reconsidering the deal during a parliamentary defense committee hearing on equipment procurement last week.

Jackson rebuffed any suggestion that his company faced credibility issues in its acquisition talks here. “We never faced credibility problems over our size or capabilities,” he said. “Additionally [helicopter-makers] Boeing and AgustaWestland have both indicated their willingness to work with us.”

In a written statement to Parliament, Ainsworth said the sale of DARA to Vector “offers the opportunity for investment and growth but also provides us with operational certainty on a vitally important maintenance service that has every chance of improving under new ownership. ... On current plans, these businesses have a finite life; privatization could develop the business further.”

The Vector boss said all three British-based businesses are commercially and economically viable. “We take a cautious view of any consolidation potential. It is not a priority,” he said. Jackson said the acquisition could be a stepping stone for the company to widen its business by creating a European center of excellence in helicopter maintenance.

“Our Sigma business already brings T56 engines from all over Europe for maintenance in the U.K., and I think we could see a similar model evolve for the Almondbank components operation,” he said.

Vector is also looking at commercial helicopter markets for work, and Jackson said he recognizes Fleetlands potential to expand the company’s engine repair and overhaul capabilities into the helicopter sector.

The British are anxious to ensure Vector retains the skills and capabilities of the DARA operation in the United Kingdom. The company has legally undertaken to retain the operational capability currently provided in the country.

Chief Financial Officer Randle Levene says the undertaking means the facilities will remain in place as long as they are economically viable. “The British government also has the right to approve any takeover of Vector by a third party,” he said.

[chevvron]

Whatever happened to open contracts and considering 3 bids?

[Fortyodd2]

Whatever happened to open contracts and considering 3 bids?

That only applies if you can find 3 companies daft enough to take the contract on!!

[Jackonicko]

I'll bet that a 'public sector comparator' was not properly examined or considered.

[GOLF_BRAVO_ZULU]

A lot of prime building, sorry, development land there as well. I'm sure DM Bedenham won't mind reducing its explosive limit again.

[Dysonsphere]

give it 2 years relocate to a different airfield in the middle of nowhere and there you go a huge chunk of prime building land.

[colonel cluster]

Just to add to the traffic problems in Gosport & Fareham if that development land is turned into housing or high density industrial use.

[poor southerner]

prime building land !!!

some of us live in south hampshire and you would have to pay me to live in a dump like gosport or near it on that A32 parking lot.

The smell from the salt flats at low tide is also something I couldn't live with. Fair enough the concrete mixing yard next door is only small and the chemical plant liquid towers might seem like modern art to some.

But gosport, that place needs ordnance and not just for storage.:8

[[email protected]]

The rumour is that the only reason for sending Sea King servicing to DARA was to give it a full order book and make it attractive to buyers. Now, when we can't get serviceable aircraft out to the front line and the ones that do make it out are heaps of sh*te and need extensive shakedowns by the front line engineers, it doesn't look quite such a clever idea does it?

No doubt some peoples pockets were well lined during the process.:ugh:

[chevvron]

Could always send it back to Wroughton with its hospital and lovely nurses.........

[GOLF_BRAVO_ZULU]

[email protected]. I lived in Gosport from '78 to '88 and Sea Kings of all colours passed through RNAY for 3rd and 4th Line during that time; long before DARA was dreamed up.

poor southerner. Now you mention it, Auntie Betty did pay me to live there.

[andyy]

"I'll bet that a 'public sector comparator' was not properly examined or considered".

If it wasn't, its probably just as well because the PSC in these things is invariably massively over optimistic and bares little relationship to the true costs of ownership.

[Chough]

Re Dysonsphere's comment - plenty of room at RAF St. Mawgan or should that be Newquay International - so come on down !

[rotor-rooter]

Story here (http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/industries/industrials/article/unite-reaction-governments-decision-sell-daras-rotary-wing-components-business_465780_6.html)

Did I miss somthing here?

Notes to Editors

Angry workers and DARA at Almondbank, Perth will hold a spontaneous demonstration outside the site at 3.pm this afternoon.

SOURCE: Unite the Union

[[email protected]]

Golf BZ - I should have been more specific, up until 2 or 3 years ago, the RAF Sea Kings had their depth maintenance conducted at St Mawgan. Following the announcement that St Mawgan was to close, the engineering setup (helicopter maintainence flight, HMF) was shutdown, instead of being relocated, and the contract for the depth work handed to DARA. The result has been delays to output dates for aircraft and an increased workload for the front line engineers. And some heaps of sh*te masquerading as serviceable aircraft being sent out to the frontline.

Now we are in the process of recreating HMF at Leconfield to speed up the procedure. The wheel turns once more.........

[leopold bloom]

Hadn't heard that rumour, can you give us more info?:confused:

[[email protected]]

Leopold - big new hangar at Lec, growing delays on aircraft output from DARA, civilianisation of SARF engineering reducing experience levels on front line so major component changes will take longer..........they might not call it HMF but it should help remove the backlog.

[Oggin Aviator]

So will the joint flight test jobs (3 or so billets, front and back seat) be civilianised ?? Nice second line number at the moment. My mate is the MTO there.

[blogger]

Deepcut, Chelsea, Fleetlands

Christ the silver is getting sold off ...............

[AZ70]

What will happen to the Golf Course? sorry, I mean Heliport;)

[tucumseh]

My first reaction was £17M for both Fleetlands and Almondbank is a steal. But I'm told other bidders demanded money from the MoD/Government to take them off their hands. I'm also told Almondbank was by far and away the more attractive of the two because of their long standing efficiency. Plenty of places one can repair airframes, but AB apparently has some unique capabilities.

What is unclear is how the pensions will be managed. Do Vector take these on? Does the Government hand over what would be a huge amount? Freeze pensions until retirement and workers have to start afresh?