RAF Oakhanger is to close at the end of the year after the government announced that a new billion dollar satellite communication system will be run by a private consortium.

Around 200 RAF servicemen and women from the No 1001 Signals Unit and their families will leave the area later in the year once the details of the project have been finalised.

The new civilian group will take over the site and equipment in Oakhanger, which will be one of more than 400 locations across the country from where the new advanced system will be run.

Under a private finance initiative, a British-based consortium will be in charge of the new Skynet 5 programme, worth around £2 billion, and civilian staff will take over the work currently undertaken by military personnel.

The Skynet 5 programme will support a range of military operations and will use at least two military satellites which will take over orbital locations currently used by the Skynet 4 constellation as it reaches the end of its useful life.

Defence Under Secretary Dr Lewis Moonie said: ÒWe are getting this service for a lot less than we would have paid if the MoD had followed a traditional procurement route and ordered the satellites itself and operated them using its own personnel.

ÒWe are also getting a greatly improved service, with security and flexibility built in to cope with the growth in military satellite communications requirements we expect over the next few years.Ó

Last week the Ministry of Defence announced that the British-based Paradigm Consortium has been selected as the preferred bidder for the Skynet 5 programme. It will spend the next few months examining satellite communication locations before contracts are signed later in the year when full details about the impact on RAF Oakhanger will be known.

But MoD spokesman Andrew Willis confirmed to The Herald that the main RAF Oakhanger site will close and be taken over by the Paradigm Consortium.

He explained: ÒThere are a small number of civilian posts - ten - at RAF Oakhanger and they will be transferred to work for the new Paradigm Consortium.

ÒAround 200 service personnel will be transferred to other military duties.Ó

But the future for the RAFÕs presence in Bordon and Oakhanger remains unclear after the announcement and is still being discussed.

The RAF-staffed NATO F4 Commanded Satellite Ground Station in Oakhanger, which supports NATO operations, is unaffected by the Skynet 5 announcement.

But the 1001 Signals Unit occupies three sites in Bordon and Oakhanger - the main operations site on Oakhanger Road, a telemetry and command site in Oakhanger village and the Quebec site in Bordon.

It is thought that the telemetry and command site will close but uncertainty surrounds the Quebec site off the High Street in Bordon, which provides administrative and supportive functions and may also close or be downsized.

This is because with a reduced number of RAF personnel, many of its administrative and community functions could be unnecessary.

A number of married quarters in St Lucia Park and Trenchard Park, as well as some officersÕ homes in Bolley Avenue, will also become vacant although the large majority are occupied by Army families.

The number of pupils attending Bordon Infant School and Bordon Junior School will also be reduced when the RAF families leave the area although, again, the large majority of children from service families at the schools are from the Army.

The announcement signals a new chapter in the RAFÕs 30-year history in Bordon and Oakhanger.

The 1001 Signals Unit was formed on June 25, 1968 and subsequently moved to Oakhanger and Bordon on February 20, 1969.

It will remain in limbo over the next six months until the Skynet 5 contact is officially awarded in the autumn when the details of the closure will be finalised.