Exclusive video footage shows large chunks of roof being blown off of a hangar at RAF Brize Norton.

The £70 million hangar, large enough to contain three of the RAF’s new Atlas transport aircraft at the same time, was officially  RAF Brize Norton in 2018.

This is how the hangar should look.

Image Crown Copyright 2018.

The RAF say that the Atlas maintenance, repair and overhaul facility, which covers 24,000 metres squared and is 28 metres high, is fitted out and fully operational in support of RAF transport operations all over the world.

“The hangar is designed to make Atlas maintenance easier, safer and more efficient. The internal layout is the result of extensive feedback from support delivery teams and has been designed to be highly adaptable with easy access to specialist tools and equipment.”

The hangar was built using Defence Infrastructure Organisation contracts and has cost approximately £70 million including fit-out work, with activity in the facility ramping up since late 2016 when it was handed to Defence Equipment and Support, the MoD’s procurement organisation.

What caused this?

Storm Eunice. The storm has so far caused gusts of 122mph to be recorded. Extreme weather has so far left thousands of homes without power and forced schools and businesses to shut.

Additionally, the storm has caused major travel disruption with road closures and the cancellation of train services, flights and ferry sailings.

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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143 COMMENTS

    • The DIO. Airbus wanted to build it but MOD insisted on DIO. They fought all the way to downgrade the spec on many fronts. Bet the AirTanker hanger nearby survived. Mind you it was a pretty fierce storm and aspect of the hangar viz a viz the wind direction will have played a part. Will no doubt affect aircraft availability unfortunately

    • Or for allowing for the doors to be open in 100mph gales?

      Seriously, if you let this kind of wind speed get under a roof that big the pressure differentials are so huge that how well built the roof is becomes almost immaterial.

      • Precisely. If you have a storm going in a building you close every door and window, otherwise it will blow up windows or worse.

  6. Firstly, I hope nobody has been hurt. Secondly, I hope the RAF had buildings and contents insurance. And lastly, who signed off on the roof design?

    • Poor design and construction obviously.

      I’m not too far from Brize, I’ve a roll of shed felt left, so I’ll put in a quote….

      £50 less than any other quote guaranteed, I won’t need any softy scaffolding either, I’ll tie a couple of extending ladders together, call it £10 million and keep the tea coming ….

        • Hey Daniele,

          $71.6bn budget – what on earth are they spending it on.

          It is very hard to spend this much money and get so little for it.

          I have just been working out how I would spend it

          260k staff = $31bn (£22bn pa)
          Army Equipment $80bn/ 25 yr = ($3bn / £2bn pa)
          Navy Equipment $102bn/25 yr =($4bn / £3bn pa)
          Air équipement $170bn/25 yr = (46.7bn / £5bn pa)
          Munitions and Personal Equipment $65bn / 25 yr = ($2.5bn / £2bn pa)
          Facilities $6bn pa or £4.25bn pa
          Operations $6bn pa or £4.25bn pa
          Maintenance $6bn pa or £4.25bn pa
          Reserve Forces $6bn pa or £4.25bn pa

          This is based upon a full refresh of everything over 25 years and a massive increase in pay, benefits and pension and I still come in at $70bn.

          It really is difficult to understand how we get so little for what is now the 3rd biggest defence budget in the world apparently.

          • In a word Pacman, the MOD behind the scenes bureaucracy, sheer incompetent bloated management structure and job creation schemes, billions is dropped into that black hole and never seen again…

            They waste billions on projects like Wildcat and Ajax, but these are the high profile money pits, there are many, many more underway and badly run going on, new IT systems etc, etc

          • almost right – bit of an issue in the formula (should be $160bn/25)

            Navy is $6.5bn pa £5bn pa inc $60bn for CASD and a further $25bn for 10 SSN’s

            For the airforce and potentially army $ is working in our favour at the moment, but for the navy we get remarkable value already but I think we could reduce costs by 40% if we upped the tempo and got the yards to build 2 ships to a proper schedule instead of spreading the orders over numerous years.

            even my error isn’t that significant on a yearly scale and thats the frightening thing here – I can make a mistake and lose $2bn pa and it still doesn’t really make a dent in the annual budget. so what’s going on that they MOD has to constantly cut orders.

          • Included in the cost of personnel which I have put down as $125k per person (about double current) which also includes some family services as well

          • Why in dollars and not sterling. Putting that aside 125k per person seems a tad low. Military pension is insanely good and would be of significant cost if funded in the private sector, which is why almost no private sector firm offers fixed income pensions and even less with such a low retirement age.

            Curious now what the actual figure is.

          • $ for 2 reasons

            1 that is the denomination reported by iss and forces news so consistency purposes

            2 most hardware is coated in $

            In pounds it comes out at c. £53bn total

            The average wage for the MOD is £50k last time I looked and I have put in around £90k for every single person.

            If someone knows the pension exposure then I can factor in to the model and will send in to George to do what he will with it

          • If average wage is 50k, then you have to add taxes to that, so probably another 5-10k. Pension probably costs somewhere between 100-200% of wage, maybe a tad higher. Then cost of providing accomodation/etc. £150k isn’t probebly far off current cost. So $200k give or take based on current exchange rate.

          • I did a Google search and in 2018 the mod pension fund was under funded by £233b. I guess that’s why the state pension age keeps getting pushed back

          • Talk to Greece, it’s why they got into so much trouble, state pensions are expensive. I just hope the government keeps kicking the can down the path until after I have retired. Sooner or later it’s going to cause major issues.

          • Equally the pension funds are not funded like in the private sector the government just pays the current value each year to retirees. As long as the economy keeps going and same with tax receipts, it’s not an issue.

          • If I remember correctly military pension are not contributed to by the recipient. they have now moved onto career averaging instead of final salary which has cut the cost a bit

          • The services pension is not as good as the police or fire service. It is about one third of your last years pay.

          • Hi Pac, I’m sure you did, but is the nuclear deterrent included in your sums?

            And “MoD central” that is the many varied organisations that don’t come under a services TLB?

            Boxer, WCSP and Ajax alone are over 10 billion. That would be 5 years of your budget for Land.

            I also wonder if you’ve underfunded maitainence.

          • Hi Daniele. $100bn for whole nuclear fleet

            The key for me is keeping everything going at a decent build rate or fleet management instead of famine and feast

            For the army it’s literally just over £3bn pa and it will take years to get on an even keel

            But that is £30bn over 10 years

            Also in the figures is $5k per person per year for small arms and personal equipment. Comes to 6.6m lots of $5k

            Although a pretty high level model it gives ever force all the key bits they need using conservative pricing such as $750m for T31, $15m for the 800 tanks and $15bn for successor. Maintenance has its own line of $6bn, with the same for ops and facilities and $3bn for Munitions each year

            Everything is fully loaded and it is staggering how we seem to get so little for so much

          • Where in your budget is the consultant fees, seminars and non executive directors fees. Oh and put me on as a director for the remaining 1.6 billion. Please

          • I knew I forgot something!!!

            what t does go to show is it is actually really hard to screw this up as much as the MOD seem to have.

            how do you spend that much money and get so little. The USMC has a budget of $44bn pa and the navy and other items outside of what we would need that the USMC has would not cost $28bn (or perhaps it does)

            even France which spends some $20bn less than us seem to get more for their money.. the only real thing you can put it down to is planning and industrial strategy.

          • Hi Pacman27, I’ve always thought there is more that can be extracted from the existing budget. The services should only be allowed to spend money on their core war fighting functions. Whilst the MOD can deal with PR, HR Etc, but under strict financial control and limited spend. The only external contractors I would recommend are financial auditors to ensure tax payers money being allocated to the MOD is spent mostly on actual defense.

          • Packman did you include Compensation claims Some person is suing the MOD as his tight fitting Body Armour has ruined his Sex life and I thought leaving your socks on was risky

          • I read some time ago that the MOD spent 130 million a year in compensation and defending against law suits. I’m not sure if it could be made legal, but some sort of limited liability status for the MOD could see a balance of punishment for negligence and wrong doing and the financial out lay. Perhaps a ceiling for compensation paid out per person or case?

        • Hi Daniele…. All those air fields that our leaders have shut are covered in WW2 hangers that have stood the test of time …. So a good proven design…… the new funky hanger falls to bits after a couple of years??
          Thanks Ian

      • “Poor design and construction obviously…”

        Seriously???????

        Or possibly the building has been hit by a series of 100-110mph gusts during a major storm (Red storm warning from the Met office is very rare BTW) that has affected the whole country that has caused building damage over a large area…

        • If I had paid £70 million for a large brand new hanger, I would expect the roof to remain in its designated position (i.e keeping the rain out) for decades without significant modification or maintenance.

          Worsening weather conditions caused by Climate change induced by Jeremy Clarkson (according to the Guardian) are now well known, we can expect 80 mph + wind storms several times a year from now on …. Nothing new, its been known about for many years now.

          So, yep, I would expect a new building to be designed to withstand this well known and long predicted climate change symptom.

          I might be thinking had I designed and built it, what do they do with hanger roofs in Alaska??? … and probably do that. Guess that’s just too much like common sense for the MOD.

          I bet the tax payer gets the bill too!

      • Does seem bad design and/or construction. It was windy yesterday, but not out of the range that should have been planned for. It’s not like I was stronger winds that have occurred in hundred years or more.

    • I think you are referring to the complete destruction of Tyndall AFB in Florida in 2018 by Hurricane Michael, a category 5 hurricane. Tyndall is being rebuilt and will house three squadrons of F-35s next year.

  12. That’s single ply type roof by the look of it, insulation is usually fixed with plate washers and fixings and the membrane is then glued on top, if done correctly that shouldn’t happen.

  13. There does seem to be a tendency towards hysterical reactions by some on this site. How roof damage, shown, becomes roof blown off, not shown, I’m not sure.

  16. Looks like Solar panels on roof being ripped ofc by debris. Hope the tied down A400Ms not damaged and personnel not injured.

    • On annual CCF summer camp at Brize in 1975 (the year the Britannia and Belfast fleets were axed…) we were housed in wooden barrack huts. On a visit to Brize in 2020 I was told they still had the huts, so… (possibly 1* up from a tent… just!🙂)

  19. The aircraft in front are parked into the wind.If the wind is 100mph surely there is a chance of them partially taking off and crashing into each other? I wasn’t in the RAF mind, perhaps someone knows out there?

    • Nah, 100mph is still below the A400’s wing stall speed, plus it has to overcome the aircraft’s weight. It may cause a bit of lift that is noticeable by more oleo showing on the suspension.

      Helicopter rotor blades on the other hand will be a major problem. For either a fully articulated rotor head or a fixed one. The blades should be parked in the negative pitch position, but air bouncing if concrete can hit the leading edge at the correct angle to create lift. This creates a phenomenon called blade sail. Which is a particular problem for a fully articulated rotor head, as the blade can pivot past the vertical so violently it damages the rotor head, Chinook I’m looking at you! This is why when you see a Chinook parked up outside for any length of time, it will always have the blades tied down, just in case the wind gets gusty.

      Even with a fixed rotor head design like the Wildcat’s. The blade will develop lift if the air hits it at the right angle. But this causes the blade to bend upwards. As the rotor head resists vertical movement. If the wind is prolonged, it will cause fatigue cracking and write off the blade. Again the blades will be tied down when the aircraft is parked for any length of time.

  23. Well, for me the entertainment for the day was watching the live stream on you tube from LHR of landings by Jerry Dyer on Big Jet TV.

    His commentary is priceless, and as a Londoner myself I love it.

    • Opening the downwind doors on a hangar is standard practice** for severe winds. If the doors remain closed, the air pressure inside remains constant; the wind flowing over the hangar at high speed creates lower pressure above the roof so that the roof panels are pushed the inside and pulled from the outside. Opening the downwind doors allows the pressure inside the hangar to escape through the open doors, thus reducing the overall lifting effect on the roof panels. Clearly, the roof panels here were not up to resisting that reduced overall lifting effect.

      **This was done in Khormaksar, Aden in 1964, for the new-build hangar on the west of the pan…

      • Thanks, but with the greatest respect, I do not need a Physics lesson.

        This is a hangar built for the MOD at a cost of £70million. This is a hangar, that was designed and built in the 21st century.

        What happened was totally outrageous and ridiculous.

        A comparison to a hangar at the former RAF Khormaksar in Aden, frankly baffles me.

        • I doubt if you’re baffled. I was merely observing that the practice of leaving open the downwind doors during very severe weather has been followed for almost 7 decades, I gave a short, basic explanation of how that policy operated. I agree that the Brize Norton incident appears outrageous and ridiculous and would not be surprised if the Board of Inquiry finds the design is defective. In my RAF career, I’ve supplied investigative information for Boards of Inquiry into several accidents and incidents.

          • Yes it was SOP to leave downwind hangar doors open, during severe weather. I especially remember the Hangars at Turn Hill, and Waddington back in the day.

  27. Not surprised, on the DIO houses they are replacing standard roofs with a Thermal Sheet type mock tile. for speed and lack of maintenance, only just completed 22 houses and 7 of them lost there roofs today, cheapest contract wins and the tax payer loses.

  28. But it dos look to be the Photovoltaic panels rather than the main stressed roof structure, £70m – 50% greed – 50% profit actual cost for a large cow shed is £10m of the same footage. nice to know its well spent

    • I don’t know much about the construction costs of modern hangars, but Boeing paid £88 million for their hangar at Gatwick which is 32 meters high and 15,000m². Whereas the RAF’s hangar is 24,000m² and 28 meters high. They both opened in the same year. Oh, I’m not defending the fact that the roof peeled off.

      • It depends on the spec really.

        £3k / m2 is high.

        It might be that there is more to it than a standard hangar with water misting fire suppression and RF Faraday shielding.

        Having office and social space hardly costs a fortune.

        TBH there isn’t much to it that a standard Amazon shed does have. And they don’t cost that much.

  29. I remember when we had a real military that our planes went into bomb proof reenforced and bomb resistant bunkers, now they keep them in B & Q tin sheds. 😀😀

    • I have never heard of cargo planes in hardened aircraft shelters. I do like the form and function style of the cold war and WW2 hangers.

    • They still do.
      Around a dozen operational and closed RAF stations in the UK have them.

      But I’m nor aware of any HAS that will hold a C17 or A400. I’d love to see them if so!

  32. We visited IWM Duxford last friday, at this time a 1930’s hanger that has been through a world war is having a make over , this hanger never cost £70ml over 90years ago , i really wonder if they or any other 1930’s hanger is use today suffered any damage to todays storm .
    The company’s that designed and built this 4 year old state of the art hanger should be made to pay for the repairs , and not be awarded any more contracts of this importance

  35. On the hanger, disregarding the damage, but regarding Pacs point on the MoD budget, and what we get for it. I wonder how many other nations spend 70 million on a hanger?

    Is that reasonable? Or are we being fleeced?

    The cost of infrastructure amazes me.

    • I don’t know much about the construction costs of modern hangars, so this might be a stretch. Boeing paid £88 million for their hangar at Gatwick which is 32 meters high and 15,000m². Whereas the RAF’s hangar is 24,000m² and 28 meters high. They both opened in the same year. I’m not defending the fact that the roof peeled off. There is an article on the Boeing hanger, but an article on military infrastructure would be interesting. I’m sure the cost includes the interior crane gantry and safety stuff.

      • Interesting, that clearly seems to be the going rate in the UK. And abroad?
        People keep saying we get so little but I assume wages and costs for this stuff are cheaper in Africa, Middle East, Asia.

        • The price of £3k / m2 isn’t crazy as I posted above.

          It is a bit high for a big open structure. Large spans = higher design and fabrication costs.

          Fire proofing and fire suppression?

          Thing is working in a secure environment etc drives costs up. Airside or on base: it is another cost line.

          • Hi K.
            Yes. We did. Side courtyard from house has venetian planters rather than a fence, they kept blowing down even though I weighed them down with bags of gravel.
            Ended up taking the plants out of them and lying them on the ground flat so the wind wouldn’t catch them.

            That was Storm Eunice. Today storm Franklin is with us and this evening we almost drove into a fallen tree that came down in Cobham. My wife spotted it in the dark and I stopped in time. Bloody wind!

            No damage thankfully to us or our home, yet! 3 storms in a week, it’s taking the piss!

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