Update on Fairford

[Spitfire88]

Iv had chance to speak to people directly this morning, this update comes direct from the command team at Fairford:

First of they don’t know if the RJ are still moving to Fairford although ALL building work will continue as planned plus there will be more work to come ( in the planning now ), flying will increase at Fairford and there will be a minimum of 4 BTF deployments a year.
The expansion of Fairford will continue and the retainment of Mildenhall will not affect the expansion of Fairford or its mission.
They also added thats it’s the width of Fairfords runway and taxiways plus the fuel supply pipeline that make Fairford so valuable to the USAF, he said that it’s highly unlikely Fairford will ever be closed as the cost of removing the pipeline and cleaning the ground are huge and far out way any developments cost.

[city42]

Do you know if the flying increase just to do with BTF

[Spitfire88]

Do you know if the flying increase just to do with BTF

They didn’t say

[city42]

Do you know if the flying increase just to do with BTF

They didn’t say

Thank you

[johnwayne]

Yep cheers for update Spit88.

[thevulcan]

Thanks for the update spitfire88.

[SamP]

Great news, looking forward to the future at Fairford

[Pune]

Thanks for the update, sounds good.
Cheers
Pune

[thevulcan]

The North Eastern loop is closed now as of the 17th and is due to be resurfaced next year.

[city42]

The North Eastern loop is closed now as of the 17th and is due to be resurfaced over the next few months until the 15th of December.

would that stop any more deployments

[thevulcan]

Not that i'm aware of due to the loop by the peanut B2 hangar can be used for support flights.

[city42]

Not that i'm aware of due to the loop by the peanut B2 hangar can be used for support flights.

ok thank you

[Tronk 11]

I wonder who owns the land. Wittering wouldn't close as its owened by the Burleigh estate, and the land would have to be returned cleaned normal fields which would cost a lot (and lots£££££££££££). Maybe its not the usaf that would foot the bill, but the mod might.

[BOLLO]

The North Eastern loop is closed now as of the 17th and is due to be resurfaced next year.

U4276/20 - NORTH EAST LOOP CLOSED INBETWEEN HARD STANDS 9 TO 15, DUE TO
CRACKING IN PAVEMENT. 17 SEP 08:26 2020 UNTIL 15 DEC 23:59 2020. CREATED: 17
SEP 08:31 2020

So looks like it may be repaired before next year.

[skywatch]

Does anyone know if there is a downloadable chart of the fairford hard stands (with numbers) and where I can find it?

Thanks

[thevulcan]

Whether the RC-135s move from Mildenhall to Fairford is still be to determined in an upcoming review - 30th Oct 2020.
https://www.facebook.com/12904610711536 ... 964209805/

To save anyone ploughing through the whole 36 minutes of this 501st CSW Q&A PR video the relevant section is roughly minute 26 to 28 . In a nutshell it confirms full speed ahead on some (non RC135 related) Fairford infrastructure projects already publicised but as PV says the RC move is subject to further review . However I'd say the 'temperature of the water'' in the response to the RC moving question could be characterised as somewhat 'lukewarm'

Thought I would quote this here as well thanks to those who have found this information and the nice description below. The infrastructure projects mentioned are the runway overruns the Deployable Air Base Systems the munitions areas and the new four bay multipurpose hangar all of which should start next year. With Lakenheath getting two F-35 squadrons along with it's three F-15 squadrons that wouldn't leave a lot of room for deployments of fighter units to lakenheath. Wonder if that is why Fairford is to become a DAB (Deployable Air Base) so that it can house and look after fighter deployments that would have once gone through lakenheath.

[page_verify]

The Colonel slipped in some ambiguity - it's the taxyway/runway repairs which are due to begin soon, rather than the runway overruns which are part of the RC-135 project (so will probably never happen.....).
The recent news stories about Fairford show how the base is now EUCOM's "frontline" air base, so I can imagine EUCOM is going all it can to stop the bread and butter tankers, RCs, cargo, and special ops from using its contingency facilities it's now using.

[thevulcan]

Thanks Page_verify The contingency facilities being Mildenhall? If so I can't wait for the traffic at fairford. Better start talking to the farmers to get a car park going.

[Ghost from above]

Tankers wouldn't be able to be based here for any length of time without some substantial work to the fuel supply and storage.The old OPA pipeline to the site and the fuel storage facilities fall somewhat short of modern USAF standards and site capacities are far to low to support this type of operation.

[davegard]

The fuel pipeline was completely renewed back in the 1970s/1980s as part of the upgrade for the 11th SG tankers. The pipeline also supplies Brize, so I am sure it must be up to standard.

All the bulk fuel stores were also completely renewed/rebuilt and expanded as part of the major upgrade in the 2000s.

So, in theory Fairford could support everything you could throw at it!
Whether it actually will is a different matter!