MOD closes UFO unit

[Jeep]

Sad news. Hang on, did we really have one?

[tarantonight]

.....................It was out there somewhere......................

[Stuff]

From BBC News (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8395473.stm)

The officer handling reports has moved to another post, saving £44,000 a year.

Err, no. The officer is still earning £44,000 a year in his new post. The saving is zero.

[hoodie]

Only if the new post was CREATED. If it was previously funded, then the saving does indeed exist.

Not that hard, really.



(Oh, and the cost of a post is rather more than the salary of the person filling it.)

[Stuff]

Only true if every job you have is filled. If you have gaps then there's no saving.

Lets say you have 10 jobs and 8 people. On paper you have funded 10 people but you actually only pay for 8. You disestablish 1 of your 10 jobs and move the incumbent into 1 of the 9 remaining posts. On paper you now have 9 jobs but you are still paying for 8.

Where's the saving?

[Jimlad1]

Folks

The figure of £44K relates to the TOTAL cost of running the unit and not the officers salary. Given the grade of the officer in question, their salary would have make up less than half of the total amount.

[althenick]

The officer handling reports has moved to another post, saving £44,000 a year.

The questions I have are ....

- Was it a gash appointment ie - "Sqdn Ldr Bloggs is a bit Bone where can we stick him so he cant do any harm - ah yes the UFO Dept." or would it be a coveted appointment?

- Did the appointee have any credible resources - apart from the complete series of The X files,Twilight Zone, and lost in space. Could he/she justify say going to a place to investigate crop circles on the exe's?

- What fu*kwitt dreamt up this post up in the 1st place?

:rolleyes:

[ShyTorque]

UFOs?

They also mean BFPOs! :*

[ORAC]

A civil service SEO post, and only a secondary duty. I have to wonder how much the actual saving was.

The task is/was undertaken as part of the duties of Sec(AS)2a) in the Secretariat (Air Staff). One of the later appointees being Nick Pope (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Pope).

With the meal he has made of it since his retirement with his books and website (http://www.nickpope.net/), I have to wonder if the closure was more part of the embarrassment factor.

[Gainesy]

Wasn't the UFO office the little outhouse/shed structure balanced on top of Northumberland Hise and reached only by a rickety catwalk ,with one handrail, across the roof?

Or did I imagine/dream that after a long non-solids lunch? :confused:

Place was full of weird geezers pretending to be spooks anyway.

[doubleu-anker]

They have never admitted to a UFO sighting in how many years the unit has been active? A lot of "unexplained" for sure, so hardly surprising it is closing.

There was one exception I believe. An MOD missle/shall went astray years ago and nearly clobbered an aircraft. The crew filed an airmiss report, right down to the size,shape and colour of the thing. Some bright spark at the MOD suggested they get off the hook by confirming it was a UFO! :}

[charliegolf]

On a funding note:

The figure of £44K relates to the TOTAL cost of running the unit and not the officers salary. Given the grade of the officer in question, their salary would have make up less than half of the total amount.

and...

A civil service SEO post

Mrs G is a civil service SEO and earns £35k ish; more than half the £44k.

Thirty five plus on costs: £42k easy.

CG

[Atlantic Cowboy]

There seems to be a confusion about the staffing of this post. It was a Band D (previous currency Executive Officer) post and not at Band C1 (SEO) as some people seem to think. I should know I was the line manager for the post for several recent years. The UFO community owe the last incumbent a great deal as he had the drive to push for publishing the reports of sightings more widely. What there is now access to in the public domain is all that is held by the MOD.

Mr Pope was a previous incumbent of the post at the same grade -perhaps the true level of staffing may have been inflated in discussions within the UFO community over the years. Of course the memory goes as staff leave and follow different career paths!

Regards
AC

[Jimlad1]

The post is no longer an SEO post - it was downgraded a while ago.

I can see the sense in running a UFO post for a while - things in the air that we couldnt immediately explain. Not so much "little green men" but perhaps "little red missile technology" is as good a reason as any. The problem is that once the loonies got hold of the FOI act, a very significant amount of time was spent answering FOI questions, then appeals, then explaining to said appellant that no the lack of answers wasn't a cover up by the Bilderberg organisation to hide grey alien existence etc.

Unfortunately the UFOologists can't take no for an answer. They've consistently seen conspiracies where there are none, and in the process wasted a huge amount of public time and money into the bargain.

If you are really bored sometime, go read through some of the MOD released emails on UFOs - its a bit of a trek, but there are some very rude emails out there about UFO spotters.

[trex450]

Just glad they have found a way to save 40+k, should keep Afghanistan going for a few seconds! Best to keep the money going to some Unjustified Foreign Operation.

[TEEEJ]

The MoD declassified working papers are quite interesting. Of note is the two western covert aircraft types (text and images) that have been edited out in the section covering.

'Working Paper No.9 'Black' and Other Aircraft as UAP Events'

These two undisclosed western types were obviously known by the MoD to be operating in UK airspace.

http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/6A30B96E-35AD-4F73-93B1-863F59A3A0E4/0/uap_vol2_pgs76to90.pdf

http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/EDAB29D1-BBE2-4811-A62B-45D6C9608BCE/0/uap_vol2_pgs91to105.pdf

Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) in the UK Air Defence Region

Ministry of Defence | Freedom of Information | Publication Scheme | Search Publication Scheme | Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) in the UK Air Defence Region (http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/FreedomOfInformation/PublicationScheme/SearchPublicationScheme/UnidentifiedAerialPhenomenauapInTheUkAirDefenceRegion.htm)

Is one of the edited out types the aircraft that Chris Gibson saw in 1989? The aircraft was in formation with a KC-135 flanked by two F-111s. Chris was a member of the Royal Observer Corps at the time. I served alongside Chris at the time and can vouch for his aircraft recognition skills. Here was an aircraft that completely stumped him.

Video interview

YouTube - 1989 North Sea Aurora sighting - interview with Chris Gibson (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ptBxwuUh7Q)

Military Extreme - CHRIS GIBSON'S AURORA SIGHTING (http://www.militaryextreme.com/viewpage.php?memid=162)

TJ

[dead_pan]

MOD closes UFO unit


Thats what they want us to believe...

[alisoncc]

Actually they've quadrupled the staff and moved them to more secure premises. Plus putting in a requisition for a replacement Tardis for a well known Doctor.

Alison

[cazatou]

It was on 28th April 1966 that I was reported as a UFO whilst flying a Night Navex from RAF Acklington. Mind you, the aircraft's number was:-

XR 666

[Scotteo]

Wait a minute, does that mean our eastern extermist counterparts can dress up one of our downed drones in silver foil, multi-coloured flashing lights, maybe even sporting an "ecounters of the third kind" theme tune and green man to boot. Stick some bangers to it that'll cause a stir and suddenly the nation is a risk because we don't have anyone looking out for Unidetified Flying Objects? All to save 44k? :ugh: