LOCATIONS
LAND
09 Jan 13. Air Force Announces KC-46A Candidate Bases. The Air Force announced Altus Air Force Base, Okla., and McConnell Air Force Base, Kan., as candidate bases for the KC-46A formal training unit (FTU).
Altus Air Force Base, Okla.; Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash.; Grand Forks Air Force Base, N.D.; and McConnell Air Force Base, Kan., are candidate bases for the first active-duty led KC-46A main operating base (MOB). Forbes Air Guard Station, Kan.; Joint-Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J.; Pease Air Guard Station, N.H.; Pittsburgh International Airport Air Guard Station, Pa.; and Rickenbacker Air Guard Station, Ohio, are candidate bases for the first Air National Guard led KC-46A MOB.
10 Jan 13. Tornado Aircraft: Service Delivery Centre. The Chief of the Air Staff and the Chief Executive Officer of Rolls-Royce opened a refurbished Service Delivery Centre for Tornado aircraft at RAF Marham on 10 Jan 13. The Centre will enable Rolls-Royce and Service engineers to work side-by-side on the aircraft’s RB199 engines.
Comment: BAE Systems has recently (7 Aug 12) been quoted as saying that the Tornado GR4 will be withdrawn from service in March 2019. 124 Tornado GR4 remain in service and they are due to be replaced by Typhoon and/or F-35B Lightning II. (Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 13/03, 14 Jan 13)
08 Jan 13. The SNP has not spoken to workers at Rosyth shipyard about its independence plans for five years, a union leader has claimed. Workers at Rosyth believe independence would be “catastrophic” for the 1,700 employees, industrial trade union chairman Raymond Duguid said. But he added they had not seen the SNP since defence spokesman Angus Robertson visited five years ago. Alistair Darling, chairman of the pro-UK Better Together campaign, was in Rosyth yesterday as part of a “listening tour” of Scotland, which also took in businesses and farmers in Edinburgh and Tranent, East Lothian. Mr Duguid believes Rosyth would be “sacrificed” in favour of Faslane naval base on the Clyde if Scotland became independent. He said: “As the trade unions in the yard, we have got a fear that, if independence was to go through, it would be quite catastrophic.
“The foundation of our work is refitting Royal Navy ships and building these two [aircraft] carriers, and, without these foundations, we couldn’t support the core workforce that we have got. A Scottish navy wouldn’t be able to support that. Funnily enough, the SNP has not come forward to speak to us. They’ve never asked to speak to us yet. They’ve not taken on board our views. The only person we spoke to, and that was about five years ago, was Angus Robertson, and he made a fool of himself. (Source: The Scotsman)
11 Jan 13. Boeing announced the purchase of a new building in Salt Lake County, Utah. Employees at the new site, located in West Jordan, will focus on fabrication of composite horizontal stabilizer components for the 787-9. The new site, located 20 miles from Boeing’s fabrication and assembly site in Salt Lake City, was purchased from Masco (MAS). Terms of the sale were not disclosed. The close proximity of the two facilities will help improve the efficiency from component fabrication to assembly of the 787-9 horizontal stabilizer. (Source: Yahoo!/PRNewswire)
07 Jan 13. Skan Group reveals its next stage plans for Boughton. Skan Group Holdings, the West Midlands engineering group which owns Boughton Engineering, has announced the next stage of its committed long term development and investment plans for the business. Initially, Boughton’s primary fabrication and manufacturing operation, currently based at Winkleigh in Devon, will be progressively co-located and integrated into Skan’s freehold headquarters facility in Wolverhampton. The company has moved quickly to enter a full consultation period with staff at the Winkleigh plant, including opportunities for relocation, whilst further options for the future of the plant will be reviewed. Conc