By Doug Maclean – Aviation Editor
It is a story that has been building for more than a year. The Ministry of Defence have hardly said a word, but Prestwick airport is about experience Project MACE and have a massive boost. The whole of South Ayrshire will benefit with an influx of Royal Air Force (RAF) personnel arriving on an 18 week detachment.
Image - Eddie Wallace
The UK has a fleet of 7 Air Tanker air to air refuelling aeroplanes. They are modified Airbus A330 Voyager aircraft, and their 24/7 operation is vital for UK security. Normally the fleet is based at RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire.
The Voyager Air Tankers operate wherever the RAF fighters operate. Whether it is patrolling along the border between Poland and Ukraine, being part of NATO’s Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) flight over the Baltic countries of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia on the boundary with Russia, or flying Combat Air Patrols over Middle East countries, RAF Typhoon fighters can rely on UK Voyager tankers to be there when asked.
As of next month all 7 are due to be based at Prestwick.
The Voyagers have a dual role. They can be tasked to do air to air refuelling or transport hundreds of troops or tonnes of cargo to bases in Cyprus or even the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. The multipurpose Voyagers are constantly in the air as a key part of the UK’s front line defence assets. They also have at least one aircraft which has a part of the cabin in VIP configuration for occasional Royal and Prime Ministerial use.
At Prestwick at least one Voyager will be on 24/7 standby because whenever the RAF scramble a QRA Typhoon from RAF Lossiemouth, on the Moray Firth or RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire a tanker will also be ready to scramble from Prestwick. This will make sure the fully armed Typhoon has no restrictions on its operation anywhere around UK airspace.
Like all well used runways Brize Norton’s main runway requires constant monitoring and occasional maintenance. It is over 25 years since the runway was fully resurfaced and doing that this summer and autumn should see the runway last at least another 25 years before similar work is required.
In the planning the MoD looked at every long runway airfield in the UK to find one where they could send the whole detachment of 7 huge tanker aircraft, aircrew, engineers and ground and operations crew. In addition, the airfield had to have large hangarage capable of housing one of more of the Voyagers for routine maintenance and any essential repairs. Only Prestwick has the runway, space, handling, refuelling capability and maintenance hangars that allows all 7 aircraft to be detached to one base.
Even at that the Voyagers will occasionally journey down to East Midlands airport where UK troops will board to fly to the Falklands and perhaps Cyprus. Stansted will be used occasionally for a mix of freight and VIP flights.
When Prestwick was identified as the only suitable airfield in the UK there was a detailed inspection of the area where the Voyagers will park during their 18 week detachment. Apron Charlie is the large parking area between the main runway and HMS Gannet.
Some of the surfaces needed repairs. It was also noted that, to operate the fleet of Voyagers, some new concrete hard spots had to be built. This will allow aircraft can be jacked up to do simple things like tyre or wheel changes. However, jacking up a 150 tonne aircraft causes enormous stress and a heavily re-enforced concrete area is necessary,
As part of the preparatory work the whole of Apron Charlie has been resurfaced. This included four new concrete maintenance pads and over 70,000 square metres of resurfaced apron space to support these heavy aircraft. The MOD met the £750,000 cost and the work took 36 weeks to complete.
A UK Government Direct Award to pay for the work was made to Prestwick. The MoD stated that the Award to Glasgow Prestwick Airport “is necessary to be awarded directly in order to enhance or maintain the operational capability, effectiveness, readiness for action, safety or security of the armed forces.”
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Prestwick airport also took the opportunity to also invest in new taxiway lighting across the area to the International Civil Aviation Organisation standard. Next year it is expected that another huge adjacent area, Apron F, will be resurfaced. The area will become a very valuable asset for Prestwick, and we will see other heavy aircraft use these parking areas in future.
The MoD have released figures under their Transparency Notice scheme, and it appears that this resurfacing work was expected to cost £1,980,225 and that another contact worth £2,376,270 has been awarded to Prestwick Airport for support services to the detachment.
As the Voyager’s main role is air to air refuelling the aircraft will be refuelled at Prestwick before every flight. This is likely to bring in further £ millions to the airport.
One of the crucial requirements for hosting the UK Tanker fleet was that the airport must be able to accommodate one or two Voyagers in a hangar to allow routine and, also unplanned maintenance. The hangar had to meet stringent requirements that will allow the aircraft to be worked on day and night.
Storm Aviation own and operate the very large hangar at Prestwick which was built to allow maintenance of Boeing 747s. Storm also regularly work on civil Airbus A330s and are certified to work on the military versions.
It is understood that the MoD were very pleased with the excellent Storm hangar that met their needs. A contract for exclusive use of that hangar has been let. The RAF have also contracted Storm engineers to work on the Voyagers under the military licensed engineers.
The Storm hangar is normally very busy for years ahead and the MoD negotiated the lease of the hangar some considerable time ago. As Storm have experienced engineers on site this means that the RAF do not need to have all of their engineers at Prestwick for the whole 18 week contract.
Again, the MoD Transparency Notice shows 2 contracts awarded to Storm for £5,356,800 and £1,488,000. One of the contacts was shown as starting tomorrow 29th June and lasts until 30th October. This should allow the RAF to start moving equipment into the hangar. The other starts on 19th July and ends on 22nd November 2026.
In addition to these contracts there will potentially be hundreds of RAF personnel staying and working in Ayrshire over the contract period. The number will vary depending on the planned activity at the Voyager Prestwick base.
After the resurfacing work had been completed a Voyager tested the new surface and parking area on June 2nd. Somewhere between 19th and 22nd July the first operational Voyager is expected to take up detached station at Prestwick.
Hotels, restaurants, service stations and many other Ayrshire businesses are expected to benefit from the temporary influx of RAF staff. The staff will be working at Prestwick until the Voyager detachment ends. That is expected to be 22nd November at latest.
The value of these contracts is indicative because the details released by the MoD under their Transparency Notice scheme were in advance of any final contract signing. However, they are a good indication that the whole of Project Mace recognises the unique value of Prestwick airport and the injection of money into the Ayrshire economy will be very welcome.
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