ARCC Kinloss to close

[Skeleton]

Sad to say but if all you are doing is controlling civilian assets, where is the justification in keeping the ARCC open?

A bigger question to me is will aircrew receive the same level of service? Jaguar and Nimrod in the Moray Firth come to mind, helo's on the scene very quickly, i am sure there any many others.

[Sandy Parts]

I'd guess the answer will be - yes - the level of service will be the same as for any other member of the public in Distress within the AOR. If you mean - will they get special treatment (priority response?) - I'd say why would they as the 'service' is no longer MoD funded? I know (personally) the risk may be greater for mil aviators but don't think that will result in 'special' service.

[Ron Manager]

A sad day, my first tour was at ARCC and it was a great place to work. A real highs-to-lows job, often in the same shift, but a great team and the opportunity (now and then) to make a real difference...even if one my annual reports referred to me as "the harbinger of doom" as I seemed to attract busy days and major incidents!

[Al-bert]

As one who spent more than two decades flying 'yellow cabs' and nearly all of that time with the secondary duty of HMCG and MRT liaison officer, my worry would be the lack of aviation experience amongst the ops personnel at 'son of ARCC'. I spent quite a bit of my spare time 'explaining things' to Coast Guards and many of today's CG Ops people don't even have relevant maritime backgrounds, let alone aviation.

[edwardspannerhands]

Considering the MCA are making a complete "Horlicks" of their own "Future Coastguard" re-organisation (don't expect them to publicly confirm this!) , I worry about the new setup for the ARCC. Especially if the MCA cannot get over their "if it doesn't happen on the South coast it's irrelevant" bias.

[mbriscoe]

Looks as if they might have moved forward the closure of the ARCC at Kinloss.

KINLOSS RESCUE was apparently heard to sign off on HF on Sunday and yesterday the call UK RESCUE was being used on HF so looks as if the MCGA call centre in Fareham might have taken over.

[Hangarshuffle]

Another good gone.

Britain will only wake up and look hard at its own ability to rescue or assist its own people in distress when that time arises again for real. We have been remarkably fortunate in the last few years to have suffered no ferry capsizing's, or oil rig disasters or the maritime like that potentially will catch us out.
Are these scenarios ever practised for, or rehearsed anyway now? Probably not anymore.
And thinking about it a little longer it just goes along with the general policy of devolution anyway. We are de-Britishising* our islands anyway - quite rapidly actually. One of the threads that held the UK together was the Armed Forces and its disintegrated before my very eyes in a few short years (like our heavy industry).


* New word I'm claiming responsibility for, and difficult to muster after a few ales, I concede.