Work to resurface the runways at RAF Lossiemouth is progressing with the return of aircraft to the Moray station, say the Royal Air Force.
The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) awarded a £75 million contract for the airfield operating surfaces project to VolkerFitzpatrick in August 2019.
WE'RE BACK!
A poetic return on home turf for #TeamLossie as @StnCdrLossie, Group Captain Chris Layden, lands the first Typhoon on our newly resurfaced runway.
Next… @P8A_PoseidonRAF! Tomorrow… pic.twitter.com/MfyaqBlx9i
— RAF Lossiemouth (@RAFLossiemouth) October 12, 2020
“For most of the work, which started in May, aircraft continued to operate from RAF Lossiemouth. However, a short period of relocation was needed while the intersection between the station’s two runways was resurfaced. This started in August and saw the RAF’s new P-8A Maritime Patrol Aircraft being delivered to nearby Kinloss Barracks and operating from there. RAF Lossiemouth’s Typhoons also operated from Kinloss Barracks as well as Leuchars Station.
Works continued night and day, seven days a week to allow the aircraft and their crews to return to RAF Lossiemouth as soon as possible. As a Defence Critical project, work also continued despite the difficulties presented by coronavirus, with various safety measures taken to make the site COVID-19 secure.”
The first aircraft to land and use the newly-resurfaced intersection was a Typhoon returning from a training sortie on Exercise JOINT WARRIOR, having taken off from Leuchars Station.
The return of the Typhoons will shortly be followed by the P-8A Maritime Patrol Aircraft.
Work on the remainder of the airfield operating surfaces continues and is expected to be completed next spring, say the RAF in a news release.
That they could use Kinloss and Leuchars, despite their closure as RAF Stations and transfer to the army, shows the strategic importance of runways, fuel installations and other infrastructure on ex RAF sites.
Sites like these should be kept, just in case, never sold off and housing estates added.
from what I understand a no. of MoD properties that were handed over by landowners (which may or may not incl. Kinloss & Leuchars) for use by the military during the wars have conditions in the agreements that in the event that they are no longer needed by MoD they are returned to the original owners in the condition that they were originally acquired. The cost of returning such a site to original condition would run into the £billions & may be part of the decisions as to why certain, apparently better, facilities are closed & disposed of rather than… Read more »
A good point, I’d heard of that but forgotten. That list must be long.
agreed, assets need to scatter quickly to all corners in case of direct threat to mainland. i wish more use was made of st mawgan with that huge runway
Tailor made for P8 dets surely.
Well said Daniele. Seems crazy to me putting our entire maritime patrol capability and half of our interceptors all in one basket. We also don’t have any air field missile defence too!
I believe the French and Italian already have. The UK just won’t fork up the money. Any money for Aster should go to the newer missiles for the T45s first, however.
https://www.mbda-systems.com/product/aster-30-sampt/ Would just need the ££££’s to pay for it.
When RAF bases are transferred to the Army the runways and related infrastructure should be maintained….it seem foolish to move men and equipment to Brize Norton instead of flying a plane to them.
and the RAF would have some emergency runways