By Michael Alexander

RAF LEUCHARS was digesting the finer detail of Ministry of Defence cuts last night following the announcement that the Fife base would lose 160 posts as part of sweeping cuts to the armed forces and scaling-down of RAF operations in Scotland.

Overall about 1000 RAF personnel in Scotland will be axed under UK Government plans to cut the armed forces, with RAF Lossiemouth to suffer 700 job cuts and Kinloss to lose 180.

The figures represent the flesh of an announcement made by Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon last July when he revealed the biggest cuts for a generation, with the RAF bearing the brunt, losing 7500 personnel.

Under the MoD’s Future Capabilities white paper, described as enabling the armed forces to meet the new threats to emerge since the collapse of the Soviet Empire, he said the RAF’s total strength is to be cut from 48,900 to 41,000 by 2008.

Yesterday, armed forces minister Adam Ingram set out where 2600 cuts would fall in the military aircraft support sector. In a written statement, Mr Ingram said 300 service jobs would go at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, 325 at RAF Cottesmore/Wittering in Sussex, 180 at RAF Kinloss in Morayshire, and 700 at nearby RAF Lossiemouth.

Another 160 will be cut at RAF Leuchars, 230 at RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire and 175 at RAF St Mawgan, Cornwall. At RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire, 125 service jobs will go and 160 civilian jobs will be cut across all RAF stations.

An MoD spokesperson yesterday said the jobs at Leuchars were being lost as part of the creation of a “central hub” for Tornado engineering work. This is to be based at RAF Marham, in Norfolk, as part of a consolidation of work relating to the Tornado F3 and GR4 fast jets. Although the two types have different functions, they share many design similarities.

The MoD spokesperson said the jobs to be lost to Leuchars would be across different ranks.

RAF spokesman Mike Mulford said it was not possible at this stage to say in more detail how the cuts would affect individual bases.

He confirmed, however, that the 700 job cuts at Lossiemouth included 340 job lossess announced last year due to the Marham relocation, meaning this announcment meant fresh cuts of 360. While posts would be disappearing, it did not necessarily mean individual servicemen would. Some may be relocated or take voluntary redundancy.

At Kinloss, he said the 180 cuts included 35 announced last year and fresh cuts of around 125. The 180 total included 20 lost civilian posts.

The spokesman added that Kinloss and Lossiemouth had been vying to be considered as bases for the Joint Combat Aircraft (JCA), a single-engined aircraft that will one day replace the Harrier within RAF service.

He confirmed Kinloss had now been ruled out because of its poor record on bird strikes—with thousands of geese nesting in the area, it is not deemed feasible for a single-engined aircraft to be operating regularly and safely in the area.

Lossiemouth on the other hand had made it past the first round and was now in line with three bases in England to be considered for the JCA.

Despite the cuts, Leuchars has emerged from the armed forces review relatively unscathed.

It has already been confirmed that the future of the Fife base is secure as last summer’s announcement confirmed it had been chosen as the country’s second Eurofighter base ahead of RAF Leeming in North Yorkshire.

Leuchars, and the main Eurofighter base at Coningsby, are already established as quick reaction alert interceptor bases and their relative locations provide optimum geographic coverage in defence of the UK. The Eurofighter Typhoon is on track to replace the F3 Tornado and be in service at Leuchars from 2008 so the base should end up with three squadrons, possibly phased in completely by 2015.

A major player in the economy of Fife and Dundee, RAF Leuchars currently has 2000 service personnel, 450 civilian staff and 50 Tornado aircraft belonging to 43(F), 111(F) and 56(R) squadrons.

A number of civilian posts will be lost at the bases as part of the cuts.

Sir Menzies Campbell, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats and MP for the North East Fife constituency where RAF Leuchars is situated, condemned the way the Government had revealed the job cuts.

He said, “When job losses of this magnitude are taking place it is an insult to the Commons and the constituency that the announcement is not be the subject of an oral statement to the House of Commons.

“Written announcements do not allow for ministers to be cross-examined. The loss of 160 jobs will inevitably have immense consequences for those directly involved as well as an impact on the local economy.”

Last night Leuchars, Balmullo and Guardbridge councillor Eleanor Gunstone said, “Job losses, especially civilian jobs, are a bitter blow to any community—and for a community that has been a home to the RAF for so many years, this announcement will be particularly hard to bear.”

Angus Robertson MP, SNP defence spokesman, was outraged by the announcement. He said, “I cannot begin to say how angry I am at the MoD, not only for their sacking or relocating nearly 1000 jobs from Scotland, but to do that with utter contempt. They have gone behind the backs of service personnel on a busy news day without releasing full details to parliament.

“They have acted in a way which is beneath contempt when you think that we are dealing with the lives of people who are being sent into harm’s way in the name of our country.”