RAF Brize Norton, the Royal Air Force’s hub for global air mobility, has been designated a top investment priority under the UK’s new Strategic Defence Review (SDR), as the government commits to implementing all its recommendations in full.
The review highlights the increasing vulnerability of critical military infrastructure to disruption, calling for urgent reforms to how the UK plans, disperses, and protects its air operations.
The SDR outlines how the changing nature of the threat, particularly from long-range missiles, cyberattacks, and grey zone activity, makes current basing models unsustainable in a high-intensity conflict. As such, RAF Brize Norton, which serves as the main launch point for the UK’s Voyager, C-17, and A400M fleets, must be hardened and expanded in partnership with private finance.
“RAF Brize Norton should be a high priority for investment and improvement in partnership with private finance,” the document states.
However, recognising that Brize Norton remains a single point of failure, the review proposes contingency planning for civilian airfields to be brought into operational readiness in the event of its disablement. This may include legislating for emergency use of commercial sites under the forthcoming Defence Readiness Bill.
“Given it is not affordable to establish a military alternative to Brize Norton should it be unavailable for operations, alternative commercial facilities must be planned and, if necessary, legislated for,” the review warns.
The RAF is already sharpening its logistics model through the Agile Combat Employment (ACE) concept, a strategy adopted from the United States, which emphasises rapid dispersal of aircraft across multiple operating locations, deep munition and spare part stockpiles, and survivability under attack. The UK intends to push this approach further, especially across NATO’s area of operations.
This move comes as allies in Europe and the Indo-Pacific increasingly adopt ACE-like doctrines to remain operationally viable in a contested environment.
In a previous age of hard earned experience, there was a saying.
“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”.
History teaches us that we learn nothing from history.
This has always been the case. In event of a major conflict in Europe. All commercial air traffic would cease and civilian airports become part of the Air Bridge from the USA and Canada. The issue will be protecting them. This I see as a role for a new Home Guard.
If only we hadn’t closed Lyneham to save money. Imagine two bases for the AT fleet to operate from. Our politicians and civil servants are very good at ignoring service advice or even common sense. The emergency access to the runway at Fairford is OK but only works to receive aircraft already away from Brize if we lost the runway, if for example DIO didn’t monitor contractors and their quality of work again.
RAF Brize Norton would not be a single point of failure for AT if they had kept Lyneham.
Worth noting that, although flying operations from Lyneham have ceased, the runway is still there and would, presumably be suitable as an alternate base in emergency.
Not affordable????
We had RAF Lyneham until the idiots closed it.
How about utilising RAF Fairford?
I think so much of this will be reinventing the wheel.
There must be dusty copies of the old “War Book” in the ministry somewhere. This has been done before.
Airfields were hardened, and some still are.
Dispersal was planned and exercised.
A roads were earmarked.
RE had ADR pre positioned.
Various private premises were earmarked for requisition, and were exempt from the Telephone Preference Scheme.
The GPSS still exists, although again the idiots have sold it off. Bring it back and get it fully operational.
Hi M8 I actually think reinventing the wheel is a bad idea, we need to invent a better one !
Just bear in mind that all the old military Airfields are mapped out and just moving the eggs from one to another isn’t a good idea. For instance Fairdford is just obvious and it’s so close to Brize the ground crews could commute, but it is really close and just way to easy a target.
IMHO this is a Golden opportunity to avoid the obvious, think outside the box and actually embrace some of the thinking in the SDR, forget the purely Military mindset and embrace lateral thinking.
These are very large Aircraft so HAS aren’t an option, besides which they would cost a fortune and be very large fixed targets. But they are also very mobile and can move around at will.
I think dispersion and confusion is a far better option, where better to hide and support them than our Civilian Airports. These are Transport Aircraft, not high tech fighters that require specialist maintenance and our Airports are Chocker full of ex RAF bods, it’s called a “career move”, and they are an untapped resource.
They all have refuelling facilities ATC, basic Airport security which could be supplemented by local Cadets or the sort of armed home reserve they are talking about, and from space one A330 looks very like another (hidden in plain site).
IMHO what they actually really do need to do first is to provide the U.K. with proper Air Defence with decent stocks of missiles. Also I’d re purpose the RAF regiment to highly mobile SHORAD and also get them something like Skyranger mounted on Boxers.
After all wasn’t it specifically founded after the disasters in Crete when the Army didn’t prioritise defending the temporary Airfields at Meleme, Chania and Heraklion ?
And it might give some of the Army who served in Afghanistan a laugh 🤷🏼♂️ Oops did I say that 😯
I’d leave the other military bases alone and available to disperse other units too especially those with HAS.
Well, there is quite a list of MoD owned runways and civil to choose from.
Yep you could make life very difficult for targeting purposes. TBH one of the biggest things HMG really need to do is actively engage with the other parties and agree a joint strategy to wake our general population up and engage.
First step is get the media onboard (the BBC is horribly woke) and then use the best communicators you can find regardless of who or their beliefs.
Setting up a home defence National Guard of say 30,000 and encouraging Lorry drivers, mechanics, Pilots etc etc to register for emergency duties would be a very practical step.
But if you really want to wake the Population just pass a bit of legislation that all able bodied people between 18 and 35 have to register for possible National Service with an exemption for those deemed to be in a reserved occupation.
That should sort the labour / skills shortage pdq as 600,000 NEET all try to get into the later categories, and maybe do something about all those young men practicing their boat skills in the English Channel.
You’re talking far too much sense mate.
Meant to add, they’d offend too many, that is half the problem.
A persistent theme, running through every government, past and present, is a constant lack of COMMON SENSE!
It scares me how complacent the government and civilian population are. All this talk of GDP to 5% by mid next decade will be making Putin rub his hands with glee. His target nations will not be ready to reple his attacks.
Even then, he will just flatten the 1 point of military resistance as nimbys won’t allow planning to go ahead to increase resilience.
RAF St Mawgan is still operational
Aka Cornwall Airport. I think you would have remove the commercial businesses that occupy the infrastructure.
If it came to a shooting war there wouldn’t be a lot of civilian flying going on so plenty of planes and tarmac.
With no planes or runway of their own,it’s a training center for something.
Well there we are, it’s all coming home to roost now isn’t it… This is what you get when you cut back and penny pinch, short term gain over strategic long term thinking. Peace dividend my arse. I say get Lyneham and Kemble (now Cotswold airport) reopened and sort out Fairford. don’t piss around with it, get it done now and double the amount of transport aircraft in the process. Start defending these bases with laser and radio directed energy weapons. Who cares about how much it costs. And in the meantime, start practicing dispersals to Civvy airports..
They have been displaying all kinds of bravado and rhetoric for decades, and they are now panicking over contingency plans that decades ago were marked in pencil with common sense written in the corner, then left in the drawer, collecting dust and forgotten about.
Those once important airfields left to be taken over by nature, or built on with housing estates
Any that remain now require £ billions to make ready
It is embarrassing 🤔🙄😒😤
Before the fall of the Berlin Wall that is exactly what we used to do.
Isn’t this already part of the contingency planning. For example: recent upgrades to Braize airfield resulted flight taking off from Stanstead. A few years ago I board a RAF Voyager from Exeter or they RAF St Mawgen in Corwall which has deep underground bumkers for storage of parts is in Newquay adjacent to Newquay airport, with one of the longest runways in UK.
Mmm these deep bunkers at St Mawgan had a very different storage use, hence the signs about lethal use etc and guards in watch towers with guns.
Civilian airfields enter British war contingency planning, well it looks like the UK is starting to realize the peace is over.