£77m Red Dragon finally approved

Project Red Dragon, the £77m super hangar at St Athan in South Wales for the Defence Aviation Repair Agency (DARA), has finally been approved today (Thursday) by armed forces minister Adam Ingram.

The project was originally due to be signed off in January but was postponed for "reasons unknown".

The design, finance, construction and management of the facility has been awarded to a consortium of Equion, (wholly owned by Laing Investments), Laing O'Rourke and Emcor Services.

The new state-of-the-art repair and maintenance facility will be constructed within a 40ha site on the existing RAF St Athan base. It consolidates DARAs interests and replaces the present facilities, currently spread around the 400ha site. The new facility will have the capacity to house 48 jet aircraft and will be capable of adapting capacity to suit the needs of customers.

"DARA plays a crucial role in delivering support to our Armed Forces. It is clear that if the Agency is to bid effectively and successfully for future aircraft repair and maintenance work, then it must have facilities that will enable it to be competitive in the international marketplace," said Ingram.

"The new facility is designed to the highest standards to help DARA achieve quality and productivity. This substantial investment is a major vote of confidence in DARA and our defence capability in Wales," he added.