The UK Government says it is ready to deploy Chinook helicopters and standby battalion personnel to help tackle the Cairngorms wildfire, responding to the Scottish Government’s request for military assistance.
The UK Government has said it is ready to provide military support, including Chinook helicopters and standby troops, to help control the wildfires in the Cairngorms, the Scotland Office stated.
The offer follows a request received on Saturday from the Scottish Government for assistance. According to the Scotland Office, the Secretary of State for Scotland has been liaising with the Ministry of Defence and the Defence Secretary on what support could be made available.
Responding to a letter from Scottish Justice Secretary Neil Gray, the Scotland Secretary said that, should the Scottish Government request it, the UK Government would be able to deploy Chinook helicopters to provide logistical support and heavy-lift capacity, provide enhanced liaison support to bolster tactical response, and offer support from UK standby battalions. The Scotland Office said the resource, available to all nations and regions of the UK, comes in addition to existing arrangements for mutual aid from fire services in England and through the national resilience function.
Secretary of State for Scotland Douglas Alexander was quoted in the press release as saying: “The last 12 days have been extremely challenging for the teams on the ground tackling the wildfire and for those who live and have livelihoods in the area. Scottish Fire and Rescue services and the local community have committed exceptional efforts to trying to get the fire under control and they deserve a wealth of praise and thanks.”
He added: “Since receiving the request for assistance from the Scottish Government, I have worked at speed with the Defence Secretary to establish the resources we can deploy to support the efforts in the Cairngorms.”
Defence Secretary Wes Streeting was quoted as saying: “My thoughts are with those who have been affected by the terrible wildfires in the Cairngorms and I pay tribute to the brave emergency services personnel who have been working tirelessly to tackle the blaze.”
He added: “Our Armed Forces are always ready and able to respond to serious situations and Chinook helicopters can be available to provide heavy-lifting capacity, which may be needed given the landscape, and we have UK standby battalion personnel ready to deploy to provide additional numbers on the ground to help bring the wildfire under control. The Ministry of Defence is ready to support in any way we can and we are working closely with teams on the ground.”
The response follows the request made by First Minister John Swinney on Saturday, after a further meeting of the Scottish Government’s Resilience Room, for military aerial support to supplement the resources already deployed. The fire broke out on 15 July and residents were evacuated from Nethy Bridge as a wind shift pushed flames towards properties and woodland.
Military support to civil emergencies is provided under Military Aid to the Civil Authorities, the standing arrangement through which the armed forces can be called on when a required capability is not otherwise available. The RAF’s Chinook, a heavy-lift helicopter based at RAF Odiham, can carry underslung loads including water buckets, and has previously supported UK flood and wildfire responses where terrain has placed demands beyond civilian resources.
OT, but topical
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has rejected ex Defence Secretary Sir Grant Shapps as a parliamentary candidate, apparently to fundamentally reshape the Conservatives into a “brand new party full of new people” and to enforce her strict policy red lines
Political commentators and internal party sources suggest that purging prominent centrist figures like Shapps – who served in nine different ministerial roles, including Defence Secretary, under previous administrations – is an intentional effort by Badenoch to cement her right-wing shift and prevent future leadership challenges from moderate factions within the Conservative party
The Conservatives under Badenoch – who have accepted £8.4m in political donations from big oil in the past three years – are demanding that all new candidates espouse her anti-net zero views. This policy guarantees that most of them will lose their deposits, when a majority of middle-of-the-road one nation Tories vote for the Lib Dems or the Greens at the next election
There have been 5 by-elections so far in this parliament. The Tory candidates approved by Badenoch lost their deposits in two of them and avoided a third lost deposit by just 709 votes at Runcorn and Helsby
This is part of the problem.. parts of the country are literally on fire and people like you are OT’ing with political party squabble bs.. get a grip.
The Conservatives are pushing the younger generation. Those in the 25-35 bracket are being encouraged into the corridors of power so they can mature and understand how things work. Two years ago vast quantities of Tories stood down and retired.
Already a new party is forming. They know that they will need be be the party that responds to the need to defend the people. That will certainly be in defence but also the need to care for those who cannot care for themselves but also getting those who can contribute to contribute in any way they can. It seems likely that Labour will have wandered to far to the left for people’s liking and a centrist party will be needed.
It will be interesting to see what happens to reform but single issue parties normally don’t end well. Especially if they are based on blaming others for problems. Doesn’t mean the problems don’t need solving but it is rarely the fault of a single group.
Political Chat Over 🙂
We are going to need to step up firefighting capacity in Britain, if the past few years are anything to go by. France have just used (for the first time) their new modular firefighting kit for the A400, which allows it to take 3 times as much retardant or water as a Super Scooper. AW149 can also lift bambi buckets so that will be handy too.
Combine a small A400 purchase with firefighting and helicopter AAR, perhaps? The firefighting kit could definitely go in the extra 1.5% if that ever actually happens.
Is the A400 modular firefighting kit integrated or something that can be purchased and stuck in a shed until needed?
It’s roll-on, roll-off like the AAR kit, so can be kept in a shed by the hangar until needed rather than permanently removing an A400 from the transport fleet.
This is part of the problem.. parts of the country are literally on fire and people like you are OT’ing with political party squabble bs.. get a grip.
Ignore this instance.. some double post detected wierdness
Those chinooks, whose numbers will be in the low 20s within the next couple of years! Best use them now for a bit of HMG spin before most are gone and replaced by a phase 1, and er a phase 2 (now not funded or given an in service date)! Another cut, spun as a capability gap prior to newer (half the number) platforms! Fuck me I’m bored to death with this Governments continuous spin and bullshit!
Yep, I tried to highlight that as much as I could for the uninitiated!
You and me both mate.
But I do have hope that we have hot rock bottom and will start to slowly improve.
We surely are at the lowest we can be and up is the only way! But alas mate, as you always correctly allude to, the newest low becomes the norm!!!!!! Cheers mate 👍
The proposed Rosebank and Jackdaw fossil fuel developments are projected to receive a combined taxpayer subsidy of nearly £4 billion through specialized UK tax reliefs, while their lifetime tax revenues are estimated to reach a maximum of £3.8 billion by 2034, assuming no increase in oil cost
Rosebank alone has an estimated cost of £2.8 billion to £3.75 billion in taxpayer subsidies. Under the core tax structure, the public will effectively shoulder 80% to 90% of Rosebank’s initial development costs. Jackdaw is projected to save the developer around £210 million in windfall tax reductions via the investment allowance
There will be NO benefit to the taxpayer. We should be asking why the Conservative party under Kemi Badenoch is demanding further investment in fossil fuel extraction while the world is burning up this weekend.
The answer is that they have taken £8.7million in tainted fossil fuel money in the past three years.
Good lord man, you are determined to use this post to slag off the Conservatives, aren’t you?
The world will continue to burn, regardless of whether we drill for more fuel in the North Sea or scrap every fossil fuel-burning machine in the country. What more extraction WILL do, however, is support jobs and the economy at a time where industries are collapsing, and hopefully improve our energy security a little while we try to convert to more sustainable options over time.
Nice bit of each chamber nonsense in the wrong chamber pal! Don’t worry about the working class thousands who rely on fossil fuels for employment, heat, energy and survival, as long as your ideology is comfortable! But don’t worry, I’m sure our middle class, mostly Cambridge educated “working class” wannabe Labour MPs will sort us out!
The labour party has the highest proportion of working class mps of any party in parliament (an admittedly paltry 13% compared to 1% amongst the tories). It also has bh far the highest proportion of state school educated mps, 85% against 54% of tories. It also represents overwhelmingly the most working class constituencies in the country – 19 of the 20 poorest seats are filled by labour mps. In other words the idea labour are some woke middle class ideologues, while people like yourself extolling the virtues of dead technology that will put the very people you claim to champion at the back of the dole queue , represent working class opinion is rubbish. Rosebank will fatten the pockets of the rich and achieve bugger all else, if we want a future for Aberdeen then it needs a massive investment in renewables using the engineering skills of the people there, not backward, polluting old tech.
What are you waffling about! The Tories are clowns, where did I once mention the Tories? I was stating that the current Cabinet contains more Cambridge educated muppets than the Starmer clown squad! But if you want to do stats, spend 5 minutes and research which of your “working class” Labour MPs have an actually had a job after whatever Uni they popped up from! But regarding fossil fuels, our opinions differ, and trying to explain any reasoning to certain ideologues is a waste of breath. And as I said, the vast majority of people the UK rely on fossil fuels for their energy and until more nuclear power is available then the green energy rip off will continue to cost people in the form of subsidies.
FYI Using Chinooks is a very effective way of dealing with Wildfires and anyone who has seen them in use abroad will know exactly just how useful they are.
TBH it pretty damned impressive watching them just scoop it out of the Sea and plonk it down inland.
The Bambi buckets they use scoop up 5 tones of water in one go, which is why last year 2 of them were stationed at RAF Akrotiri to assist the local authorities as required.
It’s impressive watching any aircraft doing the fire fighting task mate, those pilots have balls which must reduce the lift capacity available! Not sure what platform it was but seeing passenger sized aircraft coming in at low level and throwing itself about dropping the water is impressive!!! 👍
The new A400 kits carry 20t of water or fire retardant, they are where we should look first to expand firefighting capacity IMO.