§ Mr. Nicholas Edwardsasked the Minister of State for Defence whether he will make a statement on the future of Royal Naval Air Station, Brawdy, in Pembrokeshire.
§ Lord BalnielIt was announced in March that when the Royal Naval Air Station at Brawdy closed in April, 1971 the R.A.F. helicopter school would be moved there from Tern Hill in Shropshire. As a result of the decision announced in the 1970 Supplementary Statement on Defence Policy (Cmnd. 4521) to increase the number of Jaguar front-line aircraft a new requirement has arisen to use Brawdy for the Jaguar Operational Conversion Unit when that unit forms in the latter part of 1972. The move of the helicopter school will therefore be cancelled.
The station will operate on a reduced basis with some reduction in civilian employment at the airfield until the Operational Conversion Unit forms, but eventually there will be more servicemen and significantly more civilian jobs at Brawdy than would have been provided by the helicopter school.