Raf Leeming
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Raf Leeming
New Role or Closure?
Link to Article in Yorkshire Post
http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/View...ticleID=826454
Yorkshire bases hit as Armed Forces are slashed
Brendan Carlin Political Editor, and William Green
The future of Yorkshire's RAF bases and its historic regiments was yesterday plunged into doubt as the Labour Government pressed ahead with the biggest Armed Forces cuts for decades.
Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon yesterday sparked fury by downgrading RAF Leeming in the Vale of York and announcing all RAF bases will be reviewed, including the six across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
He is also pressing ahead with plans to merge single-battalion regiments - such as North Yorkshire's Green Howards - into region-wide units.
The region could also lose one of its Army battalions in massive manpower defence cuts which will slash 10,500 Armed Forces jobs - 7,500 at the RAF, and 1,500 each at the Army and Royal Navy by 2008.
And RAF Leeming will lose its Tornado fighter jets by 2008 and, according to local Tory MP Anne McIntosh, the right to host the new Typhoon fighter although the Ministry of Defence insisted the moves would not mean automatic closure.
Mr Hoon was greeted with Tory cries of "shame" and "madness" as he unveiled plans to scrap four Army battalions, 65 RAF jets and 12 Royal Navy vessels as well as 10,000 civil service jobs at the Ministry of Defence in overall plans to make efficiency savings of nearly ?3bn.
But the Defence Secretary taunted the Opposition as "armchair generals" fighting the battles of the past as he insisted that the new threats of the 21st century needed 21st-century Armed Forces.
And he insisted that new technology and changing defence needs - including reduced commitments in Northern Ireland - needed fewer personnel.
His future plans for defence, the latest of several long-term strategies released by the Government, would leave the Army on 102,000 personnel (down from 103,770).
Infantry battalions would fall from 40 to 36 but with manpower redistributed to boost the hard-pressed Army logisticians, engineers, signallers and intelligence.
The Navy will fall from 37,500 to 36,000 and the RAF from 48,500 to about 41,000.
Most service jobs would go in natural wastage, said Mr Hoon, but he could not rule some redundancies.
But the Ministry of Defence made plain that one of the four battalions to go would come from the King's Division area which includes Yorkshire.
Tory Shadow Defence Minister Nicholas Soames condemned the overall proposals as "reckless", cost-driven cuts which showed the Government's belief that its forces were "a wholly-owned subsidiary of the US Armed Forces".
Newark Tory MP Patrick Mercer, who saw active service in Ulster and the Balkans with the Sherwood Foresters Regiment, accused Mr Hoon of "an act of madness".
And even the Labour chairman of the Commons' defence committee, Bruce George, demanded to know "who the idiot was" who thought that infantry numbers could be cut.
But Mr Hoon mocked the Tories for wanting "wooden ships", "Sopwith Camels and....the cavalry" instead of the modern, sophisticated Armed Forces now needed.
He rejected any talk of the changes being budget-led as he pointed out that the latest 2005-8 spending review gave ?3.7bn to defence, a real terms average rise of 1.4 per cent a year.
That contrasted strongly, said Mr Hoon, with Tory plans for a freeze on defence spending - a claim totally denied by Mr Soames.
But the Defence Secretary was repeatedly challenged by his own Labour MPs over plans to merge single-battalion regiments into region-wide units.
MPs on both sides of the Chamber fear for the traditions of the historic regiments as well as for the possible impact on recruitment on units which have a strong regional flavour.
In this region, that is likely to involve the merger of regiments with hundreds of years'association with Yorkshire - Richmond-based Green Howards, York's Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire and the Halifax-based Duke of Wellington's Regiment.
No firm decisions have been taken and details will be announced later this year.
But Mr Hoon made clear he backed the general policy although he insisted measures would be taken to preserve regiments' traditions and distinctive identity.
However, an MoD spokeswoman said 21st-century fighting efficiency - not historic traditions - was the key.
"The calibre of the soldier should not be affected by whether you have a goat as a mascot or do not," she told the Yorkshire Post.
She also said soldiers' wives and children would welcome plans to allow army units to stay put in one base and specialise in one military function rather than moving around the country.
But retired major Roger Chapman, who speaks for the Green Howards, said a merger would be "a bitter blow" and Major Bob Heron, of the Duke of Wellington's, said "a lot of people will be absolutely gutted".
Link to Article in Yorkshire Post
http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/View...ticleID=826454
Yorkshire bases hit as Armed Forces are slashed
Brendan Carlin Political Editor, and William Green
The future of Yorkshire's RAF bases and its historic regiments was yesterday plunged into doubt as the Labour Government pressed ahead with the biggest Armed Forces cuts for decades.
Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon yesterday sparked fury by downgrading RAF Leeming in the Vale of York and announcing all RAF bases will be reviewed, including the six across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
He is also pressing ahead with plans to merge single-battalion regiments - such as North Yorkshire's Green Howards - into region-wide units.
The region could also lose one of its Army battalions in massive manpower defence cuts which will slash 10,500 Armed Forces jobs - 7,500 at the RAF, and 1,500 each at the Army and Royal Navy by 2008.
And RAF Leeming will lose its Tornado fighter jets by 2008 and, according to local Tory MP Anne McIntosh, the right to host the new Typhoon fighter although the Ministry of Defence insisted the moves would not mean automatic closure.
Mr Hoon was greeted with Tory cries of "shame" and "madness" as he unveiled plans to scrap four Army battalions, 65 RAF jets and 12 Royal Navy vessels as well as 10,000 civil service jobs at the Ministry of Defence in overall plans to make efficiency savings of nearly ?3bn.
But the Defence Secretary taunted the Opposition as "armchair generals" fighting the battles of the past as he insisted that the new threats of the 21st century needed 21st-century Armed Forces.
And he insisted that new technology and changing defence needs - including reduced commitments in Northern Ireland - needed fewer personnel.
His future plans for defence, the latest of several long-term strategies released by the Government, would leave the Army on 102,000 personnel (down from 103,770).
Infantry battalions would fall from 40 to 36 but with manpower redistributed to boost the hard-pressed Army logisticians, engineers, signallers and intelligence.
The Navy will fall from 37,500 to 36,000 and the RAF from 48,500 to about 41,000.
Most service jobs would go in natural wastage, said Mr Hoon, but he could not rule some redundancies.
But the Ministry of Defence made plain that one of the four battalions to go would come from the King's Division area which includes Yorkshire.
Tory Shadow Defence Minister Nicholas Soames condemned the overall proposals as "reckless", cost-driven cuts which showed the Government's belief that its forces were "a wholly-owned subsidiary of the US Armed Forces".
Newark Tory MP Patrick Mercer, who saw active service in Ulster and the Balkans with the Sherwood Foresters Regiment, accused Mr Hoon of "an act of madness".
And even the Labour chairman of the Commons' defence committee, Bruce George, demanded to know "who the idiot was" who thought that infantry numbers could be cut.
But Mr Hoon mocked the Tories for wanting "wooden ships", "Sopwith Camels and....the cavalry" instead of the modern, sophisticated Armed Forces now needed.
He rejected any talk of the changes being budget-led as he pointed out that the latest 2005-8 spending review gave ?3.7bn to defence, a real terms average rise of 1.4 per cent a year.
That contrasted strongly, said Mr Hoon, with Tory plans for a freeze on defence spending - a claim totally denied by Mr Soames.
But the Defence Secretary was repeatedly challenged by his own Labour MPs over plans to merge single-battalion regiments into region-wide units.
MPs on both sides of the Chamber fear for the traditions of the historic regiments as well as for the possible impact on recruitment on units which have a strong regional flavour.
In this region, that is likely to involve the merger of regiments with hundreds of years'association with Yorkshire - Richmond-based Green Howards, York's Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire and the Halifax-based Duke of Wellington's Regiment.
No firm decisions have been taken and details will be announced later this year.
But Mr Hoon made clear he backed the general policy although he insisted measures would be taken to preserve regiments' traditions and distinctive identity.
However, an MoD spokeswoman said 21st-century fighting efficiency - not historic traditions - was the key.
"The calibre of the soldier should not be affected by whether you have a goat as a mascot or do not," she told the Yorkshire Post.
She also said soldiers' wives and children would welcome plans to allow army units to stay put in one base and specialise in one military function rather than moving around the country.
But retired major Roger Chapman, who speaks for the Green Howards, said a merger would be "a bitter blow" and Major Bob Heron, of the Duke of Wellington's, said "a lot of people will be absolutely gutted".
Last edited by Styron; 26th Jul 2004 at 09:35.
Join Date: Jun 2004
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Heard they're planning to move the Phantoms from cold storage at Shawbury to Leeming as a stop gap for Typhoon when they decide to close RAF Shrewsbury
What price a new initiative to use JPs as point defence fighters?
What price a new initiative to use JPs as point defence fighters?
