48-727: Netheravon Airfield is a Ministry of Defence grass strip airfield on Salisbury Plain , in Wiltshire , England . Established in 1913 by the Royal Flying Corps , it became RAF Netheravon from 1918 until 1963, then AAC Netheravon ( Army Air Corps ) until 2012. Buildings from 1913 and 1914 survive on part of the site. The site forms part of the Tidworth, Netheravon and Bulford (TidNBul) Garrison. The airfield lies on Salisbury Plain, mostly in Fittleton parish, extending south into Figheldean . It
96-460: A concern during the 1930s, Stanley Baldwin created the position of Minister for Co-ordination of Defence . Ernle Chatfield, 1st Baron Chatfield held the post until the fall of the Chamberlain government in 1940. His success was limited by his lack of control over the existing Service departments, and his lack of political influence. On forming his government in 1940, Winston Churchill created
144-578: A defence policy with four primary missions for the Armed Forces: The review stated the Armed Forces will also contribute to the government's response to crises by being prepared to: Defence is governed and managed by several committees. The following organisational groups come under the control of the MOD. Top level budgets The MOD comprises seven top-level budgets . The head of each organisation
192-568: A government department and has responsibility for the strategy, performance, reform, organisation and the finances of the MOD. The role works closely with the Chief of the Defence Staff in leading the organisation and supporting Ministers in the conduct of business in the department across the full range of responsibilities. The Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 included £178 billion investment in new equipment and capabilities. The review set
240-587: A million people along the south coast of England, from Torquay to the New Forest , were exposed to bacteria including E.coli and Bacillus globigii , which mimics anthrax ." Two scientists commissioned by the Ministry of Defence stated that these trials posed no risk to the public. This was confirmed by Sue Ellison, a representative of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down who said that
288-555: A racial discrimination claim against the Ministry of Defence (MoD). In November 2019, mixed race soldier Mark De Kretser sued MoD for £100k claiming he was subjected to "grindingly repetitive" racist taunts from colleagues. In October 2009, the MOD was heavily criticised for withdrawing the bi-annual non-operational training £20m budget for the Territorial Army (TA), ending all non-operational training for six months until April 2010. The government eventually backed down and restored
336-572: A system called the Defence Sourcing Portal. A separate internal policy generally operates in respect of low value purchasing below this threshold. DEFCON contract conditions are numbered defence contract conditions are in contracts issued by the MOD (not to be confused with DEFCON as used by the United States Armed Forces , which refers to a level of military "defence readiness condition"). Examples include: A full set of
384-585: Is neoclassical in style and was originally built between 1938 and 1959 to designs by Vincent Harris to house the Air Ministry and the Board of Trade . A major refurbishment of the building was completed under a Private Finance Initiative contract by Skanska in 2004. The northern entrance in Horse Guards Avenue is flanked by two monumental statues, Earth and Water , by Charles Wheeler . Opposite stands
432-593: Is "in excess of £3.3 billion". The defence estate is divided as training areas & ranges (84.0%), research & development (5.4%), airfields (3.4%), barracks & camps (2.5%), storage & supply depots (1.6%), and other (3.0%). These are largely managed by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation . The headquarters of the MOD are in Whitehall and is known as MOD Main Building . This structure
480-672: Is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom . It is responsible for implementing the defence policy set by the government and serves as the headquarters of the British Armed Forces . The MOD states that its principal objectives are to defend the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and its interests and to strengthen international peace and stability. The MOD also manages day-to-day running of
528-552: Is also the Assistant Chief of Defence Staff (Personnel). Permanent Secretary and other senior officials The Ministers and Chiefs of the Defence Staff are supported by several civilian, scientific and professional military advisors. The Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Defence (generally known as the Permanent Secretary ) is the senior civil servant at the MOD. Their role is to ensure that it operates effectively as
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#1732876621320576-535: Is close to Netheravon village and about 5 miles (8 km) north of the town of Amesbury . Its buildings are on two sites. Technical buildings, including as the control tower and hangars, are immediately southwest of the runways. About 1 mile (2 km) further southwest, towards Netheravon, is Airfield Camp (also known as Lower Camp) which has offices, a training school (the Airmen's Institute), an Officers' Mess and barracks. The Ministry of Defence land which surrounds
624-434: Is partly two-storey, while the linked accommodation block and the nine detached four-room chalets are single-storey. Construction is softwood framing with asbestos-cement panels, their joints covered with painted wood strips, under a tiled roof. Historic England describe the group of buildings as "of outstanding historical interest, and of striking architectural form , comprising some of the earliest extant buildings erected for
672-704: Is personally accountable for the performance and outputs of their particular organisation. These are: Executive agencies Executive non-departmental public bodies Advisory non-departmental public bodies Ad-hoc advisory group Other bodies Public corporations Enabling organisation In addition, the MOD is responsible for the administration of the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia in Cyprus. Competitive procurement processes are used whenever possible, and all new direct tender and contract opportunities valued over £10,000 are advertised on
720-747: The Air Battalion , which flew aircraft at Larkhill. The Netheravon site near Choulston Farm was selected towards the end of 1912, and at first was called Choulston Camp. The airfield used a road which extended from Netheravon across farmland, to serve two 19th-century groups of farm buildings. Until the site was ready, service personnel were housed in tents or at the former cavalry school at Netheravon House, south of Netheravon village. Standardised designs and prefabricated methods helped construction to proceed quickly, and No. 3 Squadron moved here in June 1913, followed soon after by No. 4 Squadron RFC . In June 1914, under
768-673: The Brigade of Gurkhas was housed at Airfield Camp. The airfield is used by the Joint Services Parachute Centre , part of the Army's "Adventurous Training" programme for serving and injured personnel, and is home to the Army Parachute Association, a charity which supports sports parachuting for serving and retired personnel. The Officers' Mess and quarters at Airfield Camp, completed in 1914, are Grade II* listed . The Mess
816-676: The Gurkha Monument, sculpted by Philip Jackson and unveiled in 1997 by Queen Elizabeth II . Within it is the Victoria Cross and George Cross Memorial, and nearby are memorials to the Fleet Air Arm and RAF (to its east, facing the riverside). Henry VIII 's wine cellar at the Palace of Whitehall , built in 1514–1516 for Cardinal Wolsey , is in the basement of Main Building, and is used for entertainment. The entire vaulted brick structure of
864-578: The 297 Squadron markings. The reformed squadron kept the Halifax A.7 aircraft and moved to RAF Brize Norton on 5 September 1946. In January 1947 the squadron was re-equipped with Halifax A.9 aircraft which they kept until October 1948, during this time they moved to RAF Station Fairford on 21 August 1947 and to RAF Station Dishforth on 1 November 1948. In November 1948 the Squadron was equipped with Hastings C.1 aircraft until November 1950. During this time
912-630: The 8th Battalion, Parachute regiment and 22 independent parachute regiment in preparation for the D-Day invasion. They then moved to RAF Station Brize Norton on 14 March 1944 to practice towing Horsa gliders in preparation for the capture of the Caen canal and Orne river bridges (now known as Pegasus Bridge ) and the Merville Battery located on the Normandy coast overlooking Sword Beach . Their involvement in
960-626: The D-Day operation was: In September 1944 the squadron played its part in Operation Market Garden after temporarily moving to RAF Station Manston . They towed 29 Horsa and 2 Waco gliders in the first wave and 24 Horsas in the second, all without loss. On 30 September 1944 the squadron moved to RAF Station Earls Colne where the process of changing the Albemarles for the Halifax Mk.V was started,
1008-510: The DEFCONs can be accessed via the MoD's Defence Gateway (registration required). The government noted in 2013 that the MoD's third-party expenditure was characterised by "complex, high-value contracts". Defence purchasing contributes to government ambitions to make supply chains more accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises , but the government commented that it had yet to secure good insight into
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#17328766213201056-691: The Defence Staff (CDS) is the professional head of the British Armed Forces and the most senior uniformed military adviser to the Secretary of State for Defence and the Prime Minister . The CDS is supported by the Vice Chief of the Defence Staff (VCDS) who deputises and is responsible for the day-to-day running of the armed services aspect of the MOD through the Central Staff, working closely alongside
1104-610: The Ministry of Defence. Those departments merged in 1964, and the defence functions of the Ministry of Aviation Supply were merged into the Ministry of Defence in 1971. The unification of all defence activities under a single ministry was motivated by a desire to curb interservice rivalries and followed the precedent set by the American National Security Act of 1947 . The Ministers in the Ministry of Defence are as follows, with cabinet ministers in bold: The Chief of
1152-660: The Permanent Secretary. They are joined by the professional heads of the three British armed services ( Royal Navy , British Army and Royal Air Force ) and the Commander of Strategic Command . All personnel sit at OF-9 rank in the NATO rank system . Together the Chiefs of Staff form the Chiefs of Staff Committee with responsibility for providing advice on operational military matters and
1200-605: The RFC". Six further buildings from the same phase, and a range of five linked hangars from 1918, are Grade II listed. At the site near the airfield, the 1914 Main Depot Offices, in the same style as the Camp buildings, are also Grade II. The following units have been based at Netheravon. The following units were based at Netheravon at some point: Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom) The Ministry of Defence ( MOD or MoD )
1248-504: The UK (other than at Middle Wallop ) and the Middle East. 7 Army Aviation Regiment was formed c. 1969 at Netheravon and in 1971 the regiment was renamed to 7 Regiment Army Aviation Corps. In 1995, 7 Regiment re-roled as a volunteer Territorial Army regiment. 7 Regiment moved to Middle Wallop in 2009. For some years until 2011, when it moved to Staff College, Camberley , the headquarters of
1296-529: The airfield was used to prepare gliders for their role in the invasion of Normandy . After the war, the site was used for various purposes, including RAF Police training. Additional married quarters were built at Airfield Camp in the 1950s, and c. 1952 a Roman Catholic church was opened there. The site was transferred to the Army Air Corps in 1963 and became AAC Netheravon. No. 651 Squadron moved here in 1964 and had responsibility for Army aviation in
1344-401: The allocation of contracts. A government report covered by The Guardian newspaper in 2002 indicated that between 1940 and 1979, the Ministry of Defence "turned large parts of the country into a giant laboratory to conduct a series of secret germ warfare tests on the public" and many of these tests "involved releasing potentially dangerous chemicals and micro-organisms over vast swathes of
1392-571: The armed forces, contingency planning and defence procurement . The expenditure, administration and policy of the MOD are scrutinised by the Defence Select Committee , except for Defence Intelligence which instead falls under the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament . During the 1920s and 1930s, British civil servants and politicians, looking back at the performance of the state during World War I , concluded that there
1440-564: The cellar was encased in steel and concrete and relocated nine feet to the west and nearly 19 feet (5.8 m) deeper in 1949, when construction was resumed at the site after World War II . This was carried out without any significant damage to the structure. The most notable fraud conviction has been that of Gordon Foxley , Director of Ammunition Procurement at the Ministry of Defence from 1981 to 1984. Police claimed he received at least £3.5m in total in corrupt payments, such as substantial bribes from overseas arms contractors aiming to influence
1488-558: The funding. The TA provides a small percentage of the UK's operational troops. Its members train on weekly evenings and monthly weekends, as well as two-week exercises generally annually and occasionally bi-annually for troops doing other courses. The cuts would have meant a significant loss of personnel and would have had adverse effects on recruitment. In 2013, it was found that the Ministry of Defence had overspent on its equipment budget by £6.5bn on orders that could take up to 39 years to fulfil. The Ministry of Defence has been criticised in
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1536-477: The leadership of Lt Col (later Air Vice Marshal) F H Sykes , the airfield was the site of a gathering of RFC men and machines. Known as the Netheravon Concentration Camp, the exercise was designed to test mobilisation and improve the RFC's public reputation, as well as providing training. Flight magazine reported "upwards of 700 officers and men" and published photographs showing lines of tents for
1584-568: The new Minister of Defence , who had a seat in the Cabinet. The three service ministers – Admiralty, War, Air – remained in direct operational control of their respective services, but ceased to attend Cabinet. From 1946 to 1964, five Departments of State did the work of the modern Ministry of Defence: the Admiralty , the War Office , the Air Ministry , the Ministry of Aviation , and an earlier form of
1632-538: The office of Minister of Defence, to exercise ministerial control over the Chiefs of Staff Committee and to co-ordinate defence matters. The post was held by the Prime Minister of the day until Clement Attlee 's government introduced the Ministry of Defence Act of 1946 . After 1946, the three posts of Secretary of State for War , First Lord of the Admiralty , and Secretary of State for Air were formally subordinated to
1680-454: The past for poor management and financial control. Specific examples of overspending include: In May 2024, the ministry's payroll system was reportedly targeted multiple times in a cyberattack in which personnel and their bank details were compromised. While initial reports attributed the cyberattack to China , the Minister of Defence Grant Shapps said it would take some time to conclude who
1728-475: The population without the public being told." The Ministry of Defence claims that these trials were to simulate germ warfare and that the tests were harmless. However, families who have been in the area of many of the tests are experiencing children with birth defects and physical and mental handicaps and many are asking for a public inquiry. The report estimated these tests affected millions of people, including during one period between 1961 and 1968 where "more than
1776-592: The preparation and conduct of military operations. The current Chiefs of Staff are as follows. The Chief of Defence Staff is supported by several Deputy Chiefs of the Defence Staff and senior officers at OF-8 rank. Additionally, there are a number of Assistant Chiefs of Defence Staff , including the Defence Services Secretary in the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom , who
1824-576: The results from these trials "will save lives, should the country or our forces face an attack by chemical and biological weapons." In February 2019, former soldier Inoke Momonakaya won £458,000 payout after a legal battle for the racial harassment and bullying he received while serving in the army. In August 2019, A Commons Defence Select Committee report revealed that several female and BAME military staff have raised concerns regarding discrimination, bullying and harassment. In September 2019, two former British army soldiers Nkululeko Zulu and Hani Gue won
1872-575: The site is part of the Salisbury Plain Training Area . Much farmland in the area was bought by the War Office around 1898 for military training. Along with nearby Upavon and Larkhill , the airfield was part of the formative phase of military flying. The Royal Flying Corps was established in April 1912; in May its Central Flying School was formed at Upavon, and its Military Wing was formed from
1920-524: The squadron received additional Halifax Mk.III aircraft in February 1945 and Halifax A.7 in December 1945. On 24 March 1945 thirty Halifax aircraft towed Horsas manned with 6th Airborne paratroops to effect a successful Rhine crossing. The squadron was disbanded on 1 April 1946. The squadron was reformed in a peacetime role on 1 April 1946 at RAF Station Tarrant Rushton and merged with 295 squadron , keeping
1968-725: The squadron was equipped with the first of the Albemarle Mk. I aircraft, which they kept until December 1944 while being supplemented with the Albemarle Mk. II in February 1944, the Albemarle Mk. V in April 1944 and the Albemarle Mk. VI in July 1944. In 1943 the squadron flew Albemarles to Algeria to take part in Operation Husky , the invasion of Sicily , returning to Britain the same year. The squadron moved to RAF Station Stoney Cross on 25 August 1943, where they practiced parachute drops with
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2016-417: The supply chain role of SMEs. The Ministry of Defence is one of the United Kingdom's largest landowners, owning 227,300 hectares of land and foreshore (either freehold or leasehold) at April 2014, which was valued at "about £20 billion". The MOD also has "rights of access" to a further 222,000 hectares. In total, this is about 1.8% of the UK land mass. The total annual cost to support the defence estate
2064-566: The visiting squadrons. In August, following the declaration of war, 3 and 4 squadrons left for France to support the British Expeditionary Force . They were replaced by No. 1 Squadron which had a training role. Netheravon became a forming-up point for new squadrons; an example is No. 11 Squadron , formed here in February 1915 and deployed to France in July. It was also the home of No. 8 Training Depot Station which trained aircrew, groundcrew, specialist signallers and fitters. After
2112-525: The war, now a station of the newly formed Royal Air Force , Netheravon was used for disbandment of squadrons. A range of hangars was built in 1918 to house Handley Page O/400 bombers, but plans to develop Netheravon as a bomber base were soon shelved. From 1919 until 1931 it was the home of No. 1 Flying Training School ; between 1924 and 1928, trainees included crews for the newly created Fleet Air Arm . Training resumed in 1935 under No. 6 Flying Training School RAF , which left for Little Rissington in 1938 and
2160-646: Was a need for greater co-ordination between the three services that made up the armed forces of the United Kingdom: the Royal Navy , the British Army and the Royal Air Force . The formation of a united ministry of defence was rejected by the coalition government of David Lloyd George in 1921, but the Chiefs of Staff Committee was formed in 1923, for the purposes of inter-service co-ordination. As rearmament became
2208-470: Was disbanded in 1950. The squadron originally formed as the Parachute Exercise Squadron at RAF Ringway on 15 December 1941 and moved to RAF Netheravon on 22 January 1942, then officially becoming No 297 Squadron RAF. In February 1942 they were equipped with Whitley Mark V aircraft. The squadron moved to RAF Hurn on 5 June 1942 and to RAF Thruxton on 24 October 1942. In July 1943
2256-475: Was replaced by a new incarnation of No. 1 FTS, renamed to No. 1 Service Flying Training School in 1939. In the 1939-45 war, Netheravon saw short stays by various squadrons, while training activities continued. In 1941 training of Fleet Air Arm aircrew relocated to the United States. Squadrons based at Netheravon included 297 (from December 1941), 296 (January 1942) and 295 (August 1942). In 1944
2304-641: Was to blame. No. 297 Squadron RAF No 297 Squadron was a squadron of the Royal Air Force . It was notable for being the first airborne forces squadron formed. With sister No 296 Squadron it formed No 38 Wing RAF in January 1942, joined in August by No 295 Squadron ; the Wing expanded in 1943 to become No 38 Group RAF . The squadron saw action in Sicily and took part in the D-Day invasion and Operation Market Garden. It
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