An investigation is underway after intruders cut through a wire fence at the Royal Artillery Barracks in Larkhill, stealing what officials described as a “large quantity” of fuel from a civilian contractor on site, according to LBC.
The break-in occurred on Saturday 4 October and led to the activation of “Operation Wideawake” after the rear gates of the garrison were found cut open, LBC reports. An anonymous source told the broadcaster there was concern the breach could have allowed intruders to “do anything” once inside the perimeter, describing frustration among personnel over what they viewed as long-standing vulnerabilities.
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson confirmed to LBC that both the Royal Military Police and Wiltshire Police are investigating the incident. “The incident has not impacted the operational output of the base,” the MOD said, adding that it takes security “extremely seriously” and maintains a “multi-layered approach” including fencing, patrols and CCTV.
A source close to the department told LBC that the theft appeared limited to stolen fuel, with no further damage or losses discovered. Wiltshire Police confirmed that “damage had been caused to a fence and fuel stolen from a tanker at Larkhill Barracks” and said inquiries remain ongoing.
The security breach follows a similar incident at RAF Brize Norton earlier this year, where activists gained access to a restricted area. In light of both events, Liberal Democrat defence spokesperson James MacCleary told LBC that the government “doesn’t appear to have learnt any lessons from recent security breaches at other military locations” and called for “a comprehensive review across all UK military bases and assets.”
Danny Kruger, Reform UK MP for East Wiltshire, also described the incident as “extremely concerning” and said “swift action must now be taken to establish how this new security breach was allowed to happen,” according to LBC’s report.
Larkhill remains a key Royal Artillery garrison and training hub on Salisbury Plain, with this latest incident once again raising questions about base security nationwide.
Larkhill eh, well at least we havn’t got any artillery pieces to nick.
What’s going on come on now do camps not have patrols at night anymore and my god maybe even cctv and a QRF or do soldiers not do guard duty anymore ?
The perimeters were only patrolled in states of high alert in 1980’s, doubt its changed. At Topcliffe in Yorkshire the only fence was at the front, you could walk in the back along farm tracks.
Don’t agree. We always had a 2 man patrol checking the perimeter when on guard duty. In quiet times they had pick axe handles and armed when on high alert.
In 1982 there was a waist high fence with some barbed wire at the rear of Theipval Barracks in Lisburn.
Armed guards at the gates only.
Northern Ireland, no perimeter guard.
In the 80s’ we had a perimeter patrol in every unit I was in. That was in the UK, Germany and Armagh NI. Admittedly in NI it was done by the UDR. Maybe not School of Signals though, that place was huge. I vaguely remember a mobile patrol though.
I was at 233.
I did guard commander more than enough.
Can’t say that was the case when I was in in the early to mid 90s to the 2000s if we manned the gate we also patrolled if the camp had MPGS they obviously did it but we definitely did perimeter patrols
It gets cold at night ! Have you not heard of “health and safety” ? 😜
Fences, Patrols and CCTV and they failed to spot people cutting open tge gat and running off with fuel! Wow we are wide open to anyone with some clippers…
Whatever happened to sentry duty?
It’s a military base, whether it has personnel or equipment, surely it needs to be guarded.
I always thought as soon as an intruder was on site, the sentry/military police etc could shoot whoever they wanted too without any comeback.
Maybe these days, even the military has gone too woke.
Lucky no one has yet gone in and done something terrible, imagine if this country was actively engaged in action that some of our communities are not happy about, a base here could get attacked, we have seen the future with what Palestine Action did, they broke in with migrants on bikes who sabotaged engines. What I don’t understand is that these bases are full of military men who don’t do much in the evenings, why can’t we simply enlarge guard duty to show physical presence as accept that as a new normal?