Axed after 102 years, home of the Red Arrows – and Dambusters – to be sold
THE home of the Red Arrows is to be sold to cut costs as the RAF celebrates its centenary year.
RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire is facing the axe as the Ministry of Defence seeks to save £3billion by 2040.
The announcement was made by the MoD on the last day of the parliamentary session before the summer recess.
Opened in 1916, the base was the headquarters of the famous 617 Squadron as it prepared for the Dambusters raid in the Second World War.
Scampton is also the home of 1 Air Control Centre, which protects UK airspace from hostile aircraft.
Downing Street defended the plans, insisting the move will save taxpayers £140million and help provide more ‘modern and efficient’ military bases.
The airfield employs 600 people and has been home to the Red Arrows Hawk T1 jets for more than 20 years.
The sale is expected to be completed by 2022 and work has begun to find a new site for the much-admired aerobatics team.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Graydon, Chief of the Air Staff from 1992-97, said: ‘Scampton is a very good base. It has an extremely long runway and is situated in a part of the country which is ideal in many ways. I just hope that all of these consequences of closing Scampton are fully understood and appreciated.
‘I’d like to know where they are going to put the Red Arrows. In the past we moved the Red Arrows around from pillar to post and it was not a good time.’
Sir Edward Leigh, Tory MP for Gainsborough, tweeted: ‘Not the best way to mark the #RAF100: closing the home of the RAF Red Arrows and Dambuster squadron. I will work with Lincolnshire County Council and West Lindsey District Council to ensure the base has a bright future.’
Another base, RAF Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire, where fast-jet pilots and Prince William were trained, will be closed in 2020. Fast-jet training will now be at RAF Valley in Anglesey, North Wales, from 2019.
The MoD said disposal of Scampton ‘would offer better value for money and, crucially, better military capability by relocating the units based there’.