Aborted sell off of RN Air Station

[Martin the Martian]

According to an article in The Times today the outgoing 2nd Sea Lord has launched a blistering attack on the current woke culture in the Navy. The interesting part, however, was the sentence in the piece that during his tenure he wanted to sell off some of the existing Naval estate including 'one of its air stations' but was prevented from doing so.

Now as the FAA has only two air stations, I presume the chop would have fallen on Culdrose and everything would have been squeezed into Yeovilton. I guess that might still happen one day, but for now it seems like squeezing a quart into a pint pot?

A typical fish head's view of air operations and aviation? Or a logical move?

[Not_a_boffin]

Not sure the Times has the right end of the stick. This letter doesn't mention wokery-pokery, but is unflinching in desire to embrace change.

Twitter

There's simply not room in one of Heron or Seahawk for all the assets. However, one wonders if he was actually referring to Predannack or Merryfield?

ETA - There are always queries as to whether we need X, Y, Z Naval Base. It's not so long ago that people were desperately casting around to find a reason to "close" Portsmouth. Conveniently missing the point that while there are large chunks of the base itself that are not fully utilised, these tend to be away from the waterfront, yet difficult for other users to access. The same people seemed also blissfully unaware that there were one or two "big ships" on the way and that while the overall numbers of ships may have fallen a little, the newer ones were significantly bigger, requiring more jetty space.

You only have to look at how crowded the berths were over Xmas to understand how daft any closure would have been.

[chevvron]

Could have been Fleetlands or maybe Lee is on a long term lease from MOD and could be sold, likewise Portland.

[Not_a_boffin]

Originally Posted by chevvron

Could have been Fleetlands or maybe Lee is on a long term lease from MOD and could be sold, likewise Portland.

I think those three have long gone from MoD ownership.

[ASRAAMTOO]

So, strive to leave the navy a better place than you found it. When the second Sea Lord joined the RN (according to Hansard) they had:
2 Carriers
2 Assault Ships
53 Destroyers and Frigates
32 Submarines

Bit more striving required I'd say. :-)

[NutLoose]

I thought they’d already disposed of the none woke facility, see

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNAS_Twatt_(HMS_Tern))

[SLXOwft]

Originally Posted by Not_a_boffin

There's simply not room in one of Heron or Seahawk for all the assets. However, one wonders if he was actually referring to Predannack or Merryfield?
.

That was my first thought - there have been proposals to dispose of Predannack for as long as I can remember. However, both RM Condor (formerly known as RNAS Arbroath(HMS Condor)) and RMB Chivenor were both on the original 'A Better Defence Estate' disposal list so I wondered if he really meant one of them.

I think there is a lot of merit in his second paragraph criticising self-censorship, risk-aversion, and an apparent lack of curiosity, confidence and critical thinking; 'a spurious belief that you can avoid risk by sticking to a failing status quo'.

I see the letter as a raspberry to those who have been comfortable managing the decline and near demise of the Andrew and a pat on the back to those who are seeking a genuine future role.

[POBJOY]

Predannack

Interestingly PD has just installed a 'Remote Control ATC service' although I am not sure how this affects any Fire and Rescue operation. I believe the location is now actually owned by the National Trust so prob not great commercial value as no development would be allowed. The RAF Cadets have a VGS based there that would not need Navy input. What is does have is multiple smooth runways but no population. Culdrose loosing its Hawks soon so less activity there.