Wainfleet closed last month i think.

Surely it would save a bit of money by relocating the CRC back to Neatishead from Scampton, moving out the Reds elsewhere and closing Scampton. It's not doing much for a large airfield is it? (Keep the dog bit).

The 57 list, the MoD's list of RAF Bases is hoop. Another home goal for RAF PR, about time they got a severe kick in the slats.

As said above, Joe Public will be under the impression that the RAF has 57 Brize-Size Stations with hangars, runways etc. And whose fault is that?

5f6b

Speaking with a couple of 'bona' mates in the pub (so its obviously a rumour!) but they said the height (amsl) of Cottesmore (400 ft-ish) makes it unsuitable for the OCU (something to do with the hover charateristics of the T10, particularly in the summer months). To move the Cott sqns back to Witt may require a reduction in front line GR9's. But then if the Carriers are under threat (again) who needs them ...:E

I reckon the base "closure" will be one already earmarked for closure (such as Lyneham or St Mawgan). It's all in the spin ....

RAF Wainfleet is a weapons range on The Wash on the east coast of England near Wainfleet, in the civil parish of Friskney, although the north-east part of the range is in Wainfleet St Mary.

Courtesy of Wikipedia.

Oooops, I got beaten to the answer!

Google Earth says that it's a pub called 'The Barley Mow'!

TCF

Being greedy - but they are linked by a theme - I have 2 offerings:

RAF Croughton and RAF Menwith Hill.

However, I suspect our colonial cousins may have something to say if we try to close those!

have a look at Alan Turnbull's www.secret-bases.co.uk and see how many ex RAF bases are still in use by "someone else" but still called RAF *****xyz and then tell me we will not be shutting them, so we pick one of what we have left and close it down just after spending a fortune on it, sell it at a loss and then spend more than we saved trying to shoehorn everyone in elsewhere.

politics - don't you just love it.

Let's not forget that Cameron's bunch will need to find camps and quarters for the 20,000 lads in Germany who they have promised to bring home.

57 RAF Bases my contribution RAF Fylingdales
CS

As much as I wanted to pick Brampton, Wyton, Henlow - however a quick search on the RAF/Camp site does show a Grob EFT Squadron there...

So, can I have Halton?

57 Bases. High Wycombe

St Mawgan...

Of course, and being provocative here, you could always close Cranwell.

Move the fg sqns into Waddington - if you believe the rumours of the numbers of ac types and sqns actually going into Waddington over the next few years, you should quite easily be able to shoe-horn a couple more in, with sqns 'hot bunking' when sister sqns are away on ops.

And the Air Force Board have already established their credentials as being no respectors of ethos and history when it comes to getting rid of significant bases - how many BoB stations left, Bentley Priory etc - so why should Cranwell be any different.

Just think, CHOM could become home to Kesteven Borough Council, or maybe even Sleaford Town Hall ;)



And yes my tongue is firmly in cheek here before anybody says anything.

57 Bases. Kirton in Lindsey

if wittering is to close, will we get the moped endurance race at cottesmore??

i need to sort my engine's fueling out, be a shame to waste, ahem,
"hours" in the shed this winter!!!


ok, i'll admit the truth....

15 minutes and a sh*t load of tie wraps!!!

Project Future Lyneham?
 

Briynham?

When it only costs something like 20mil to run Lyneham per year and something like 300mil to spend on Future Brize and who knows how much wasted on CATARA?
Could we have just moved some of the smaller units mentioned above into Lyneham and Brize and kept 2 large airfields going?

And no I don't want to start a Future Brize discussion here there are other threads for that

Just been on the local news up here in the frozen North, "Both Lossie and Kinloss are at risk of closure". The resident 'expert' reckons Lossie will be saved because it has two runways. Glad I'm not at Kinloss with my own house in the local area......oh hang on wait a minute.......Bugger!

I appreciate that they're in charge and hardly likely to vote themselves into redundancy, but when are we going to see a cull of senior ranks.

The latest Hansard I can find will tell you that the RAF employs over 1200 Wg Cdrs and 300 plus Group Captains. Without wanting to sound blunt; WTF? One in every 30 people is a Wg Cdr or above?!?

Seriously, you want to save costs? This is a force that can deploy (much) less than 100 fixed wing fast air. When's it going to start acting like it?

And before the band wagon gets going, I think that I'm right in saying that the RN employs 900 Cdrs, 260 captains and almost 100 one stars...seriously? These figures need to be cut by half, haven't they?

I suggest the SDR comes up with a quota system. The crabs are allowed one OF-5 per squadron, the fishheads are allowed one 1-star per surface combatant, the rest falls out in a 3:1 ratio up and down the ranks...that'll fix it. I reckon that'll give the RN siro 40 Cdres, 120 Captains, 360 Cdrs, etc etc. The RAF will be a little bigger, and the Israelis would still think us top heavy.

I have no idea about the pongos, but they are reputed to be the only officer corps actually over manned at the moment..

And if thats not frightening enough how many are Engineers (or to be correct, as they are all GD branch these days, formally from the Engineer branch)

Using Vec's beancounter methods and Orca's stats:-

Current Winco's - 1200/57 = 21+ per station
Current Groupies - 300/57 = 5+ per station

Thats quite a good ratio for compulsory pensions - Any Takers?

Orca,

Without wishing to be that turkey voting for Christmas (no I'm not a senior officer), you may have a point. I wouldn't be surprised if the RAF's top heavy status stems from not only the fact that it sends its officers to war as aircrew, but also the perception from years back that as a highly technical service, it required above average education, skills etc etc etc which were the preserve of the officer corps.

If I'm being honest, this probably doesn't hold a great deal of water any more. However, as we move further and further into a Joint environment, where Joint is spelt A-R-M-Y, having the firepower that an extra stripe here and there can provide is rather handy at times. Otherwise, we'd all be living in shell scrapes, eating rat packs and changing into 'Thursday Afternoon Dress' along with various other quaint customs.

As long as the Army remains as dominant as it does - notwithstanding the current land-centric campaign giving their voice even more weight - the RAF and the RN need to be able to argue across the table as equals and if necessary shout the Army down when required. For that reason alone, I can't see us getting rid of lots of senior officers in a fell swoop.

The fact that it would destroy career pyramids at a stroke and leave a time bomb ticking away in the form of PVRs and options being exercised as the economic climate eases, is another but equally imprortant consideration in this one.