Cranwell is not too far away!

OK for Shadow, perhaps for Sentinel, not so good for the bigger boys.

Why not Scampton for everyday use and somewhere else for major servicing. How long will it take to resurface the runway, is the other question, could it be done on a 24 hour a day basis?

RJ, send them to Mildenhall, if that's an option if they cannot use Scampton or another station.

Runway resurfacing is not an excessively long process, a crew did Schipol airport a few years back at night, over a period of a couple of weeks I seem to remember and, the airport remained operational at all other times...

Surely Mildenahll would be the obvious bolthole? All the engineering and ground support is already in place, it would just need the RAF air/ground crews to complete the picture?

-RP

The important thing for the RJ isn't the resurfaced existing runway, its how much longer they are going to make it, so that the first thing an RJ doesn't have to do once airborn is go look for a boom equipped tanker.

My reading of the scenario is that it is a complete rebuild (and extension) which involves creating multiple layers of a new deep substrate. Resurfacing is a different, and relatively simple, task ...

... unless, as happened at Scampton in the 80s, the contractors didn't bother with the friction course as they were running out of time/money. Day One of ops on the new surface, on a rainy day, revealed a skating rink. "Stand down Scampton Wing." :cool:

Exactly! I believe the issue that was raised circa 2008 when mumblings of RJ were becoming more pronounced, was that the Waddo runway was short by about 1000 ft for an ops sortie of any useful length, as the USAF ODM required the field lengths to be factored.

Lets hope things changed...

BTW; the R1 used Conningsby during the big dig of 2004.

Oh, and talking of boom tankers, how does the UK plan to do "National" sneaky-beaky missions that require AAR?

The question that no-one in the UK MoD is willing to answer, or does that mission exist anymore?

By doing a deal with AiM to include booms on the last 4 Voyagers at discounted cost, given that the current aircraft haven't met the contracted requirements yet??

I think NoVaNav explained the AAR sketch several posts back. He appears to be Mr RJ on PPRuNe so far as I am concerned.


I think the limitation on sortie length is more likely to be the supply of rations for the Formation Eating Team.

Boom AAr for RAF RJs
 

dragartist,

I'll ask the RAF ass't Air Attaché at the local RAeS chapter meeting at the UK Embassy next week. He is working the RAF RJ here in the U.S.

However, I believe the agreement is for USAF KCs to provide refueling when needed. Similar to the agreement for KCs with drogue systems to stand alert in the UK to replace the Victors when they all were in the South Atlantic for Operation Corporate.

and what, pray, is the solution for getting our Boom only RJ's down south in the event of Op CORPORATE 2.0?

being the suspicious, underhand soul that i am i rather doubt we've a promise that the KC's will support our RJ's on national missions further than 20South...

I bet one would be near the Ukraine now if we were allowed to use them.:\

Surely we are safe now the RAF have deployed the E3!

JIV ... It's NATO that has deployed the E3 NOT the RAF ...

And the probability of that happening?

Just thought I would ask again. As a tax payer.
Is the aircraft going to fly soon?

I spotted it again outside, near the grass at Waddington. It looks great but being on the ground is not why it was bought.

saves us all a bucket load of cash tho'

probably waiting for the new financial year when (hopefully) there is an allocation for fuel.................... :ok: