04 July 2003

RAF Lyneham set to close by 2012

RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire is to close by 2012 with the loss of almost 600 jobs at the transport and logistics support airfield.

Under the rationalisation plan confirmed today by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) the squadrons based at RAF Lyneham will be transferred to RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire. While most of the airbase’s 2,000 staff will be posted elsewhere, including 360 civilian workers, the closure is expected to result in the loss of around 580 jobs.

Defence Minister Adam Ingram confirmed that the airfield will remain open until the RAF’s current fleet of Hercules heavy transport planes are scrapped. The base will then probably be sold off.

In April this year the airfield was visited by Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie as they toured military establishments in the UK during the Iraq conflict. The airbase facilities and the fleet of transport aircraft also played a key role in Operation Telic - the invasion of Iraq.

The MP for North Wiltshire, James Gray, who described the closure as a “disgrace”, has launched a scathing attack on Mr Blair claiming that he must have known then that the base was scheduled for closure.

Initially a flight training base, Lyneham quickly became a centre for Air Transport.

In 1956 the station became the first RAF airfield to operate jet transports when the first Comet C2 transport aircraft were deployed.

RAF Lyneham, a major tactical transport station, is home to five Hercules squadrons, an Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, RAuxAF, and the UK Mobile Air Movements Squadron, which is responsible for establishing facilities at temporary bases.

The MoD had already announced that the replacement for the Hercules, the A400M military transport developed by the European-based Airbus group, would be based at RAF Brize Norton.

(SP)