RAF Fast Jets To Practice Dispersal Off MOBs
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For 'Church Fenton' you now mean 'Leeds East'?? There are quite a few containers and things parked up on their longer runway.
However, there are still Doncaster "Robin Hood" (Finningley), Humberside and Tess-side as active airports... or Leeds-Bradford if you want to shake your teeth out!
Please please please do something at Woodvale even if it's only a couple of Typhoon rollers prior to dispersing to Liverpool as the locals are becoming anti-forces bitching and moaning about the Chinooks using the army base at Atlcar just down the road for a week a couple of times a year. RAuxAF (611 Squadron) unit there for force protection purposes.
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Location: Horsham, England, UK. ---o--O--o---
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For fighters:
Leuchars
Wattisham
Leeming
Honington
Upper Heyford
Bentwaters
Boscombe Down
For starters, all with million pound garages. (HAS Sites)!
Manston
Brawdy
Chivenor
St Mawgan
Yeovilton
Culdrose
Northolt
Biggin Hill
Shawbury
Valley
Stornoway
Other types to Civil Airports… 👍
Leuchars
Wattisham
Leeming
Honington
Upper Heyford
Bentwaters
Boscombe Down
For starters, all with million pound garages. (HAS Sites)!
Manston
Brawdy
Chivenor
St Mawgan
Yeovilton
Culdrose
Northolt
Biggin Hill
Shawbury
Valley
Stornoway
Other types to Civil Airports… 👍
The question of support always raises it's ugly head with off base operations
I suppose the question is how long do they think a war in Europe requiring dispersal would last?
And how many aircraft despatched will return on Day 1??
I suppose the question is how long do they think a war in Europe requiring dispersal would last?
And how many aircraft despatched will return on Day 1??
Dispersed Ops only "guarantees" you a Day 2. After that, well...
Well it's either this or Amazon Prime I guess.....................
The next time you land at Changi, have a good look out of the taxi window as you set off down the East Coast Parkway into town. A good long straight stretch, central reservation easily removable flower boxes, lamp posts not solid but screwed down to the ground, a few easily moved trees=an emergency runway.
.
.
with the youngsters on the crew bus in recent years generally got met with a “yeah, whatever grandad”…and eyes never looked up from smartphones…..
The disposal of Lyneham was complicated for a number of reasons. Firstly, it had been two airfields (one a flying training station - run by Marshalls, I think - the landing ground was the large oval sports field) and then it was expanded to become a Transport Command station. Some of the land for the former station had been purchased conventionally by the Air Ministry before the war (around 'New Zealand' farm) whereas most of the rest of it had been compulsorily requisitioned under Emergency Regulations, including part of Bradenstoke and the remains of the Cistercian Monastery. Added to that, the site was an Aircraft Storage Unit ( all the Lammelerdach hangars) as well (later 27(?) MU) . There was extensive contamination by POL and radium from aircraft dials. As with most other sites, there was an expectation that ammunition would also be found. The compulsorily purchased land had to be offered back to the original owners (or descendants) at the unimproved value whereas the land around NZ (Officers' Mess, sports field, Rubb Hangar, 47 Sqn HQ etc) could be sold at commercial rates. However, the cost of remediating the whole site potentially exceed the net worth; by comparison the huge POL depot at Rosyth was sold 20 years ago for £9M and the buyers were paid a further £12M to remediate it...
A year or two after the RAF moved out, we drove by and went to see our first-ever quarter, on Muscovey Close. I really wish we hadn't. Looking through the window, there must have been a roof leak, and in the middle of the sitting room, mushrooms were growing out of the carpet and the patio doors were off their runners, and the lovely rear garden was chest deep in weeds.
On the issue of strategic vulnerability, this as raised many times during the Future Basing study but dismissed as 'unaffordable' and 'out-dated thinking' bearing in mind we were being very expeditionary at the time - Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq...
A year or two after the RAF moved out, we drove by and went to see our first-ever quarter, on Muscovey Close. I really wish we hadn't. Looking through the window, there must have been a roof leak, and in the middle of the sitting room, mushrooms were growing out of the carpet and the patio doors were off their runners, and the lovely rear garden was chest deep in weeds.
On the issue of strategic vulnerability, this as raised many times during the Future Basing study but dismissed as 'unaffordable' and 'out-dated thinking' bearing in mind we were being very expeditionary at the time - Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq...
Last edited by Whenurhappy; 23rd Jul 2021 at 13:15.
It is just as well that our opponents didn’t have any outdated ideas. Even a half -hearted counter air effort would have caused chaos on the crowded airfields of ,say, Italy.
WUH - is that post in the correct thread? looks like it should be in Why didn't they keep Lyneham open?
At the price they charge, even off peak, we couldn’t afford it!
I’m sure now that FlyBe/Stobart/et al there would be plenty of room at most of the regional airports. I’m sure they’d welcome the business.
Out of interest, anybody remember when we last practiced this?
I’m sure now that FlyBe/Stobart/et al there would be plenty of room at most of the regional airports. I’m sure they’d welcome the business.
Out of interest, anybody remember when we last practiced this?
We were quite good at off-base Ops in the good old Harrier days - "1"s in TACEVAL across the board pretty much says it all.
But do those now in charge have any idea of the support tail that we had in those good old "Cold War" days?
The Harrier was a relatively simple aircraft to operate and maintain. OK - a field engine change was a real pain in the A** - but otherwise it seemed to enjoy the environment and felt that it was at home. It even did well - perhaps better than some (or most) expected at absorbing Argentinian bullets. But we only had relatively simple weapons - no sophisticated clever weapons.
I also did get to fly the Jaguar onto and from an Autobahn not far from Ramstein - but that was a simple on/off exercise. No lengthy operation to include weapons.
So - great idea - let's re-invent the wheel and disperse aircraft from our now rather minimal number of MOB's - but can we actually operate from those locations, or is it a cosmetic and political Magnolia (nothing wrong with Magnolia!) cover-up? And where is the support?
But do those now in charge have any idea of the support tail that we had in those good old "Cold War" days?
The Harrier was a relatively simple aircraft to operate and maintain. OK - a field engine change was a real pain in the A** - but otherwise it seemed to enjoy the environment and felt that it was at home. It even did well - perhaps better than some (or most) expected at absorbing Argentinian bullets. But we only had relatively simple weapons - no sophisticated clever weapons.
I also did get to fly the Jaguar onto and from an Autobahn not far from Ramstein - but that was a simple on/off exercise. No lengthy operation to include weapons.
So - great idea - let's re-invent the wheel and disperse aircraft from our now rather minimal number of MOB's - but can we actually operate from those locations, or is it a cosmetic and political Magnolia (nothing wrong with Magnolia!) cover-up? And where is the support?
Last edited by ex-fast-jets; 23rd Jul 2021 at 19:47.
We were quite good at off-base Ops in the good old Harrier days - "1"s in TACEVAL across the board pretty much says it all.
But do those now in charge have any idea of the support tail that we had in those good old "Cold War" days?
The Harrier was a relatively simple aircraft to operate and maintain. OK - a field engine change was a real pain in the A** - but otherwise it seemed to enjoy the environment and felt that it was at home. It even did well - perhaps better than some (or most) expected at absorbing Argentinian bullets. But we only had relatively simple weapons - no sophisticated clever weapons.
I did get to fly the Jaguar onto and from an Autobahn not far from Ramstein - but that was a simple on/off exercise. No lengthy operation to include weapons.
So - great idea - let's re-invent the wheel and disperse aircraft from our now rather minimal number of MOB's - but can we actually operate from those locations, or is it a cosmetic and political Magnolia (nothing wrong with Magnolia!) cover-up? And where is the support?
But do those now in charge have any idea of the support tail that we had in those good old "Cold War" days?
The Harrier was a relatively simple aircraft to operate and maintain. OK - a field engine change was a real pain in the A** - but otherwise it seemed to enjoy the environment and felt that it was at home. It even did well - perhaps better than some (or most) expected at absorbing Argentinian bullets. But we only had relatively simple weapons - no sophisticated clever weapons.
I did get to fly the Jaguar onto and from an Autobahn not far from Ramstein - but that was a simple on/off exercise. No lengthy operation to include weapons.
So - great idea - let's re-invent the wheel and disperse aircraft from our now rather minimal number of MOB's - but can we actually operate from those locations, or is it a cosmetic and political Magnolia (nothing wrong with Magnolia!) cover-up? And where is the support?
Surely for anything more than a couple of days survival dispersal major roads are impractical.
Apart from the spares and servicing thing there would be desperate need to move troops, supplies etc around the country and not being able to use major roads would be a severe hindrance. Have to deploy the regiment down the road ten miles? Sorry, can't do that. RAF have closed the bye pass. Needs a two hundred mile detour.
Pity they have been closing airfields willy nilly for so long. Hiding aircraft in twenty fields out of three hundred would be more practical. (In Canada we'd probably only need three.)
Apart from the spares and servicing thing there would be desperate need to move troops, supplies etc around the country and not being able to use major roads would be a severe hindrance. Have to deploy the regiment down the road ten miles? Sorry, can't do that. RAF have closed the bye pass. Needs a two hundred mile detour.
Pity they have been closing airfields willy nilly for so long. Hiding aircraft in twenty fields out of three hundred would be more practical. (In Canada we'd probably only need three.)