No uncertainty re: RAF Church Fenton.

Well, those links show that it’s within DE’s plans until 2030, but continued operation as a flying base with formed units is another matter altogether.:) It can be the easiest base to operate; the domestic site has been somewhat neglected for the past 15 years (as shown on “urban exploration” sites and forums, except the Officers’ Mess, which was somewhat controversially demolished!), and staff (unless in private accommodation) and students have to use the Quarters and Mess facilities at Linton, which on a bad day can be nearly and hours drive away. Not ideal at all. IMO a more sensible bet for the long term would be to move up the road to Leeming once the Tornados have completely gone (IIRC, there’s still a lot of “spares recovery” taking up hangarage).

Well all I can say is that they used to practice at St Mawgan, with the fairly busy Newquay airport moves not interupted and the crash cat. not especially raised for the occasion.

Sadly I suspect that would now be prohibitively expensive now the RAF have moved out.

Leeming seems to be a perfect choice to me with just one Hawk unit there now on what was a large and busy airfield, but I certainly am no expert on what goes on in that area.

There’s enough accidents on that stretch of the A1 already!:) Certainly would be logical, maybe practicing over Topcliffe, although this would impact on the arguably more important work done at Linton, particularly with the uncertain future of Church Fenton.

I’m not sure why this Reds issue is so big, they go to Cyprus every year to practice (can we afford that) and there is plenty of other airspace open to them.

I wouldn’t say plenty, considering it needs to be over a military aerodrome (open or closed) which has appropriate crash cover, and relatively close to the base aerodrome, and where regular movements will not be affected. That would narrow it down to not very many places.:)

Hot Charlie- is the runway really ideal for a Dominie with full fuel and students?

Possibly not. But at 6000ft it’s by no means short. I’m no Dominie performance expert either! 🙂 That aside, the Dominie is certainly first in line of Cranwell based types for replacement under MFTS.

As for the College – certainly a fine building but again not a justification for the RAF to mainatin something long term that is going to need greater expenditure than a modern building.

All about preserving and indoctrinating the ethos of the RAF and pride in service to the RAF of today and tomorrow, nevermind preserving what ceremony and tradition the RAF has built up in the 70+ years of CHOM. What would we get with a modern building; take a look at Daedalus Mess all of 200 yards away. CHOM is perfectly good at what it has to do, and in the back of your mind you know that some legendary names have shared the rooms before you, and their pictures, as with those of every other graduate, line the walls.:)

Whilst I would like to be optomistic for the future of Cranwell – could not the function of the likes of the Jaguars be carried out at the forthcoming St Athan facillities.

I’m sure they will be when DCAE moves there in its entirety.

If, God forbid, there was a major incident at Waddington, there should be a large base on standby to divert everything too.

There is: Brize, Lyneham et al etc? I don’t think Scampton could fulfil that role now anyway.

The Jaguar can get there faster.
It can strafe.
It can use offborsesight AAMS.
It is simpler.

And it’s either scrap or a museum piece.

Given the ever deceasing budget and the increase in costs, should the RAF look to only have one fast jet platform for the future? As such as the Netherlands, and Canada for example have operated a single swing role platform successfully for a number of years could the RAF do the same?

Should it? In light of current ops, probably not.

Could it? If the right decisions had been made using a crystal ball, it probably could. Had Typhoon been developed as a real swing role fighter since the 90s, there’s no reason it could not perform any task required of it.