St Athan, in the Vale of Glamorgan, is the headquarters of the Defence Aviation Repair Agency – set up in 1999 to provide a public sector benchmark for aviation work and to cut the cost of maintaining and repairing the UK’s military aircraft.

The Red Dragon project at the same site, to be opened by Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan tomorrow, was funded largely by the Welsh Development Agency to the tune of £80m. But Prospect has warned it will become ‘a red elephant’ because of a switch in policy by MOD, which has handed much of its order book to the RAF and plans to lease more equipment from manufacturers, making DARA’s facilities and its employees redundant.

Prospect says the possible privatisation of the organisation, mooted by MOD in December, should now be abandoned and DARA as a whole brought back under the wing of MOD. A market test by the American investment bank, Morgan Stanley, is due to report to MOD at the end of April on potential buyers.

However, the loss of 500 jobs at St Athan last autumn, when DARA lost a contract to maintain Harrier jets to the RAF, plus the loss of the contract to repair Tornado jets, has brought fixed wing work at DARA St Athan to the brink of collapse.

Prospect negotiator Jim Cooper said the union doubted the ability of RAF personnel to undertake the kind of long-term planned maintenance at which DARA excels. It has already emerged that the cost of the contract to repair Harrier jets at RAF Cottesmore has risen by 1700 per cent. The original contract, worth £570,000, will now cost £17m.

"This makes a mockery of the decision to award the work to the RAF," said Cooper. "It has left DARA in a perilous position and at the mercy of private sector contractors, keen to get their hands on facilities which were designed to make St Athan a world class aviation centre. Sell-off would see the loss of that expertise, the break-up of highly skilled teams and destroy the public sector benchmark for defence aviation repair and maintenance work. It will be impossible for MOD to assess work streams for value for money."

Cooper said DARA and its staff had met every challenge and target they had been set. "The uncertainty surrounding its future is bitterly disappointing for staff who have done everything asked of them to make DARA a success.

"It is a monumental mistake and a disgraceful fiasco that threatens the jobs of thousands of highly skilled workers and which will devastate local communities. MOD has allowed a turf war to develop between a civilian agency and the RAF. The situation is out of control and demonstrates that as far as MOD goes, the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. It is imperative that the new ministerial team change the policy and give DARA work."

NOTES:

Prospect represents specialist civilian staff in the Ministry of Defence.

DARA operates at four sites: St Athan in South Wales, Sealand in North Wales, Almondbank near Perth, Scotland and Fleetlands near Portsmouth. It employs 3,800 staff – all highly skilled aviation engineers – with more than half based at DARA headquarters in St Athan.