Machrihanish airbase to be sold

Thousands of conspiracy theorists will be reading news of the sale of the former RAF, NATO, Cold War, MoD airbase, and by dismayed that one of their favourite sites – which they christened “Scotland’s Area 51″ – is to be sold.

We look forward to their theories as to how the British, and Americans who they must be in cahoots with, will sneak out all the black secrets from the area without being seen, and how all the flying saucers and Top Secret, non-existent, craft that use the area are going to continue without this essential European staging post.

Then there’s the question of the “City Beneath the Runway”. Surely all the resources and peoples living and working down there are not just going to be abandoned. Or will there be another Mary King’s Close event, and the underground city will just be sealed off and forgotten, together with its occupants. This would, of course, conveniently eliminate anyone that might later run to the papers and sell their story and the secret.

(Your scribe used to work with US technical support staff who had been posted to NATO Machrihanish over twenty years ago, and the stories made for great laughter over a pint).

Meanwhile, back in the real world…

The MoD has given an undertaking to consult with the local community prior to completion of the sale, which will see twenty jobs lost, and Argyll and Bute MP Alan Reid has warned the base should not simply be sold to the highest bidder.

At the forefront of concerns is the future of Campbeltown Airport, which uses the western section of the of the former airbase for its operations, however the MoD has already stated that this operation is not threatened by their plans.

Twenty  Those who will lose their jobs are currently employed as facilities management staff and security guards, however the MoD has said there may be opportunities for them to provide services to the existing tenants, or transfer their positions to the new owners.Campbeltown Airport operates from a section of the site which is leased for the purpose by Highlands and Islands Airports.

They couldn’t put the airfield at risk now, not with the luxurious developments and Machrihanish Dunes golf course moving towards completion, which are sure to depend on it to bring in wealthy visitors.

The airfield has a long military history, and can trace its roots back to World War I, when a small aerodrome with grass runways was established there to provide facilities for non-rigid airships (blimps) and fixed wing aircraft of the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS).

With the end of World War I in 1918, the military left the area, and the aerodrome became established as a civilian operation, serving the growing number of private and pleasure flyers, created from the ranks of those who had been trained to fly during the war, and were redundant as it ended. By the early 1930s, Midland & Scottish Air Ferries Ltd began to operate scheduled, commercial flights from the airfield, which had become known under a variety of names, including Campbeltown Aerodrome, which is simply the obsolete language form of Campbeltown Airport.

The outbreak of World War II saw the Royal Navy return to the area, requisitioning the original airfield and the area to its north. Sunley’s (an English construction company) began construction of the new airfield to the north of the existing site, on an area of flat land known as The Laggan. On completion, the new airfield opened as Strabane Naval Air Station, and named HMS Landrail on June 15, 1941, becoming RNAS Machrihanish on Monday, June 23, 1941. The old Strath airfield became HMS Landrail II, and continued to operate as a satellite of the new airfield.

The airfield was reactivated during the Korean War (1950 – 1953), and became operational from December 1, 1951 to December 1, 1952. During this period, squadrons used the area’s training facilities to practice their operations prior to embarking on HMS Indomitable in May, 1952. By 1953, the airfield had again been abandoned.

During the 1950s, tensions relating to the the Cold War steadily grew in intensity, and this led to the next, and largest, development at Machrihanish.

The base was also home to a US Navy SEAL (SEa, Air, Land) Commando Unit, a twenty person team known as a Naval Special Warfare Detachment. The unit was located at the western end of the runway, together with the buildings and silos of the Weapons Facility. Three such units have been identified: Navy Special Warfare Unit One, Subic Bay, Philippines; Navy Special Warfare Unit Two, Machrihanish, United Kingdom; Navy Special Warfare Unit Three, Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico.

The need to maintain the base and facilities at Machrihanish gradually diminished during the late 1980s and early 1990s, as the Cold War effectively ended with the breakup of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991.

Operational activity at Machrihanish decreased rapidly in the early 1990s, and on June 30, 1995, the US Navy officially handed control of the the base back to the MoD, which is now responsible for the site. Retained on a care and maintenance basis, the airfield could be reverted to military use in times of conflict or national emergency.