Role of RAF base thrown into doubt

RAF St Athan suffered another blow from a damning report by spending watchdogs over the construction of a multi-million pound "super-hangar" to repair RAF fighters which was abandoned shortly afterwards.

According to the National Audit Office, the "Red Dragon" project cost taxpayers £113 million but was abandoned within a year of opening and failed to achieve any of the planned objectives.

The hangar then became the centrepiece of the proposed defence training academy when the Ministry of Defence chose St Athan over RAF Cosford to house the tri-service academy.

Dogged

The defence academy scheme has been dogged by problems since the contract was awarded to the Metrix Consortium based at St Athan, and yesterday MPs learned of a further delay.

Armed forces minister Bob Ainsworth revealed in a Commons written reply that the current estimate was that the defence college would be fully operational by May 2015.

But he went on to say that the date remained subject to "final approval of the main investment decision" on the training project as well as contract agreement and confirmation of transitional planning arrangements.

Tory MP Robert Walter told the Commons: "There seems to be slippage on the defence training review and the move to St Athan. I understand that the contracts are still in difficulty."

Mr Ainsworth insisted that the St Athan project was "in nowhere near the difficulty" that its critics had suggested.

RAF Cosford's future is intrinsically linked to the St Athan project because its training operations were due to move to South Wales.