Current Use
It was announced in December 2009 that RAF Wittering was to become the sole operational base for the RAF/RN Harriers of Joint Force Harrier after the announcement that RAF Cottesmore was to close. However as a result of the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review, the Harrier fleet was withdrawn in December 2010 with all of Wittering's Harriers being stored at RAF Cottesmore.
The station has re-roled to be the home of the 'A4 Force' (the Royal Air Force's Air Combat Service Support Units (ACSSUs)), with No 85 Expeditionary Logistics Wing and its subordinate ACSSUs, 2 MT Squadron and 3 Mobile Catering Squadron (formerly the Mobile Catering Support Unit (MCSU)) moving in from RAF Stafford. Elements of the Armament Support Unit (ASU) also returned to RAF Wittering from RAF Marham in Norfolk to be part of the newly formed No 42 (Expeditionary Support) Wing, which also took 5001 Squadron under command from 85 Wing when that unit also relocated from RAF Stafford. The Ministry of Defence Hospital Unit (MDHU) based in Peterborough, continues to be attached to and parented by the Station. The station is also home to 3 Sqn RAF Regiment who moved to Wittering from RAF Aldergrove in 2006 after a 7 month tour in Iraq. 3 Sqn are part of No 1 Force Protection Wing, also based at Wittering, 1 FP Wing also consists of 504 Sqn Royal Auxiliary Air Force based at nearby RAF Cottesmore.
In November 2011 the Ministry of Defence announced that 44 Service personnel from HQ 12 (Air Support) Engineer Group, part of the Royal Engineers, will move from Waterbeach Barracks to RAF Wittering in 2012-13.
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Famous quotes containing the word current:
“Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,
Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell
And the profit and loss.
A current under sea
Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell
He passed the stages of his age and youth
Entering the whirlpool.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“The current flows fast and furious. It issues in a spate of words from the loudspeakers and the politicians. Every day they tell us that we are a free people fighting to defend freedom. That is the current that has whirled the young airman up into the sky and keeps him circulating there among the clouds. Down here, with a roof to cover us and a gasmask handy, it is our business to puncture gasbags and discover the seeds of truth.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)