{"id":34829,"date":"2013-11-15T11:57:28","date_gmt":"2013-11-15T11:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=0db4645cb7d8444c200e4f761bbf50a0"},"modified":"2013-11-15T11:57:28","modified_gmt":"2013-11-15T11:57:28","slug":"news-story-armed-forces-minister-visits-raf-fylingdales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=34829","title":{"rendered":"News story: Armed Forces Minister visits RAF Fylingdales"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Mr Francois was shown around the ballistic missile early warning site at RAF Fylingdales in Yorkshire, which plays a vital role in monitoring space for missiles, satellites and other debris on behalf of both the UK and US governments. <\/p>\n<p>After touring the radar and the futuristic space operations room the minister visited the brand new visitors\u2019 centre, <a href=\"\/government\/news\/raf-space-monitoring-station-reaches-milestone\">which opened in September<\/a> to mark the 50th anniversary of <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.raf.mod.uk\/raffylingdales\/\">RAF Fylingdales<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Francois also took the opportunity to speak to a number of the men and women that work at the RAF station helping to keep Britain safe. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"image embedded\">\n<div class=\"img\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Armed Forces Minister Mark Francois (centre)\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/image_data\/file\/18665\/LEE-UNCLASS-20131114-1470-004g.jpg\"><\/div><figcaption>Armed Forces Minister Mark Francois visiting RAF Fylingdales [Picture: Senior Aircraftman Mark Parkinson, Crown copyright]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Mr Francois said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>This is the fiftieth year of ballistic missile early warning operations at RAF Fylingdales and to meet the men and women who perform such a vital role in the defence of the UK and her allies was a real privilege.<\/p>\n<p>With its personnel and sophisticated systems maintaining a constant vigil for missile threats and space debris, RAF Fylingdales continues to play a unique and essential role in maintaining safety and security in an uncertain world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">These people help to keep us safe 24-hours-a-day, 365-days-a-year and we are proud of what they do.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Wing Commander Rayna Owens, RAF Fylingdales Station Commander, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>We were delighted to welcome Mr Francois to the station and show him the valuable work that our personnel do every day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">RAF Fylingdales is a vital cog in the UK\u2019s defences and our people work 24\/7 to ensure we know what\u2019s out there.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>RAF Fylingdales has been at the cutting-edge of the development of space surveillance and analysis since it opened 50 years ago, integrating contractors into operations.<\/p>\n<p>The team play a vital role globally as they also contribute to the US Space Surveillance Network through the Joint Space Operations Centre at Vandenberg Air Force Base.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Armed Forces Minister Mark Francois has visited the heart of the UK&#8217;s missile defence system as part of a wider tour of air defence assets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34829"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34829\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}