The Ministry of Defence has refused to publish a risk assessment of private sector involvement in running the Solid State Phased Array Radar at RAF Fylingdales, saying the recent contract activity continues arrangements that have been in place for years, according to an answer given in Parliament.
Mark Pritchard, the Conservative member for The Wrekin, asked whether a risk assessment of outsourcing the operation and maintenance of the radar would be published.
Louise Sandher-Jones, Parliamentary Under-Secretary and Minister for the Armed Forces, said: “Private-sector support to the Solid State Phased Array Radar at RAF Fylingdales is longstanding. The recent contract activity represents the continuation and re-let of existing support arrangements, rather than a new decision to outsource the capability.
“The contractual re-lets were subject to the Ministry of Defence’s established investment, commercial, security, safety and risk-assurance processes. Operational command of, and accountability for, the radar remain with the Ministry of Defence. Contractor personnel provide defined operational, maintenance and sustainment support within established contractual, security and technical governance arrangements.”
RAF Fylingdales stands on the North York Moors and has provided ballistic missile early warning since 1963, originally through three radomes that gave the station its nickname of the golf balls. They were replaced in 1992 by the present solid state phased array, a truncated pyramid with three faces each covering 120 degrees, which watches continuously without moving parts. The station feeds the United States Ballistic Missile Early Warning System as well as British users, and contributes to space surveillance.
