RAF Brize Norton runway closed?

[HMS Seahawk]

Breaking news on the Sky News channel that flights unable to land or take off as the runway has melted due to the extreme heat!

[helired3]

Bit of a Joke rely no problem just down the road at Fairford 250+ Departures

[5944]

Luton as well now reported to be closed due to runway damage.

[Tommy]

The Herk that departed from RIAT today had to divert to Cardiff.

Counterbalanced against convenience, I guess it shows the perils of putting all one’s eggs in one basket and basing your entire transport/tactical lift/cargo/AAR fleet at one base.

Given that the same thing happened last year, it’s at least now a semi-regular occurrence. I’ll bet they are looking at resurfacing ASAP. That’s surely not tenable for your transport hub to be out of action every time temps hit the high 30s.

[GeeRam]

Counterbalanced against convenience, I guess it shows the perils of putting all one’s eggs in one basket and basing your entire transport/tactical lift/cargo/AAR fleet at one base.

Given that the same thing happened last year, it’s at least now a semi-regular occurrence. I’ll bet they are looking at resurfacing ASAP. That’s surely not tenable for your transport hub to be out of action every time temps hit the high 30s.

Only the terminally stupid thought this was a good idea when they closed Lyneham. At least put some of them on care and maintenance rather than closed, but the bean counters have had a field day for the last 30 years using the peace dividend to decimate the armed forces.
I suppose we could chuck the Army/RM out of a few of them and take them back, but the MOD are pretty poor at services accommodation as it is so, that will be the problem.
Look at the active front line and second line RAF flying bases closed since 1990......Lyneham, Wyton, Bawdy, Chivenor, Wattisham, Coltishall, Finningley, Church Fenton, Linton-on-Ouze, Cottesmore, Leuchars, Kinloss, St.Mawgan, St.Athan, Abingdon, .....and Scampton about to be added to the list........and that's off the top of my head.
Honington has also been lost as a flying base as well in that time, although its still technically RAF being used by the Rock Apes.

Add to that, the USAFE bases of Bentwaters, Woodbridge, Alconbury & Upper Heyford all gone as well.

Even if 30% of them had been kept on care and maintenance there would have been some wriggle room in event of emergency, war or otherwise.

[aviodromefriend]

Even if 30% of them had been kept on care and maintenance there would have been some wriggle room in event of emergency, war or otherwise.

AFAIK there is one for if Brize is unusable, and it is done multiple times already. The problem today is that it is to being transferred from airshow modus to operational modus. From what I understood, that is to last until next Friday. (And if someone still doesn't get it, it is RAF Fairford, just down the road.)

[Oldtower]

Flying resumed yesterday morning onwards - i live on the doorstep of Brize