reclaimthebases.org.uk column 12.2.04

Welcome to the reclaimthebases.org.uk Column of the Week - an update on the resource's status, a new Base of The Week, and related matters. I have updated the front page of the site - there is now two events advertised where the RtB box used to be : Block the Base ( Menwith Hill) and the Aldermaston March. So no link, then, to this week's base of the week : High Wycombe.

Though it's an RAF base, High Wycombe, in Buckinghamshire, doesn't host any aircraft, nuclear weapons, spy radomes, and it's not a USAF base. But it hosts RAF Strike Command.

Strike Command (SC) is responsible for all of the UK's frontline aircrafts [1], including transport and maritime aircrafts, and associated infrastructures. It functions as control and planning centre for military operations, but also it seems as an administrative headquarter for the RAF - it was SC that recently awarded to Serco RAF Brize Norton's "multi-activity support services" contract [2].

One of SC's tasks is the Air Surveillance And Control System (ASACS) [3], providing early warning of air attacks, and as such a direct recipient of data from RAF Fylingdales. In practice the day to day control of ASACS is done by NATO forces [4] - High Wycombe hosting the NATO Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC) No 9.

Let us finish this column with a note on recent developments at the Permanent Joint Forces Headquarters (PJHQ) : Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR - a Halliburton subsidiary) has just been awarded a seven year contract "to provide logistics and infrastructure support to PJHQ operations and exercises worldwide" [5]. This is such that KBR will have a small team embedded within PJHQ - the highest military headquarter below the MOD.

See you all next week !

• 12.2.04
  
  • Added 'upcomming' box on front page, for a selection of upcomming events.
  • New base of the week ( High Wycombe) and new Column