{"id":44978,"date":"2014-07-14T15:39:14","date_gmt":"2014-07-14T15:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=db621aff5ab163db0bdc7f92cd4681a6"},"modified":"2014-07-14T15:39:14","modified_gmt":"2014-07-14T15:39:14","slug":"news-story-raf-voyager-aircraft-arrive-on-schedule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=44978","title":{"rendered":"News story: RAF Voyager aircraft arrive on schedule"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology Philip Dunne met with members of the crew who had flown the Voyager from its base at RAF<\/abbr> Brize Norton in Oxfordshire. <\/p>\n

At almost 200 feet long, with an equally wide wingspan, the Voyager is the biggest aircraft in the RAF<\/abbr>\u2019s fleet. Since December, it\u2019s been playing a key role in the operational airbridge that transports personnel and equipment between the UK and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

As well as carrying people and cargo, Voyager also has an air-to-air refuelling capability. On a typical deployment across the Atlantic, the aircraft is able to refuel 4 fast jets whilst carrying up to 5 tonnes of freight or passengers.<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/div>
A Royal Air Force Voyager transport aircraft at RAF<\/abbr> Brize Norton (library image) [Picture: Andrew Linnett, Crown copyright]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mr Dunne also met with staff from AirTanker Limited<\/a> who are providing Voyager<\/a> as part of a 27-year private finance initiative contract worth \u00a310.5 billion. He said:<\/p>\n

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Voyager is the largest aircraft the RAF<\/abbr> has ever operated, and its greatest strength is its versatility. It has already proven its value by supporting operations in Afghanistan, providing a modern, efficient and dependable service that has been praised by the RAF<\/abbr> and its passengers.<\/p>\n

Delivering the Voyager aircraft on time is a major achievement and an effective demonstration that MOD<\/abbr> procurement is not only under control, but also delivering timely and world-class results for the taxpayer, industry and the armed forces.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Bernard Gray, MOD<\/abbr>\u2019s Chief of Defence Materiel, said:<\/p>\n

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Delivery of this groundbreaking private finance initiative programme on schedule is a significant moment for Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S<\/abbr>) and the RAF<\/abbr>. Earlier this month DE&S<\/abbr> announced delivery of the first 3 Chinook Mk6 helicopters to the RAF<\/abbr>, also on schedule.<\/p>\n

These events provide evidence that DE&S<\/abbr> is becoming a higher-performing delivery organisation, better able to deliver vital equipment and support to the armed forces on time.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Voyager flies into Farnborough for the International Air Show as MOD confirms all 9 aircraft have now been delivered to the RAF.<\/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\/44978"}],"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=44978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44978\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}