Five Serco employees at RAF Fylingdales celebrate more than 150 years of service

Five Serco employees at RAF Fylingdales in North Yorkshire recently celebrated more than 150 years of combined service at the station – with longest having worked there for an impressive 40 years.

Serco at RAF Fylingdales is responsible for operation, maintenance and technical support for the Ballistic Missile Early Warning Solid State Phased Array Radar (SSPAR). The SSPAR helps to protect the UK 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, by tracking all objects in the low earth orbit, providing 360 degrees of azimuth coverage. On average the radar tracks and catalogues around 1500 satellites a day, plus the thousands of items of space debris that are floating around the earth.

A celebration event was recently held at the station to say goodbye to two loyal employees, Mr Frank Mulderrig and Mr Malcolm Owen, as they enter retirement. Frank, a Technical Operator who initially joined to work on the original tracker site radar, has been a key member of the operational team looking after the radar for the last 39 years. He has seen many changes over the years, from decommissioning of the tracker site in 1993, to the construction and operation of the new radar 1992 and a major upgrade in 2005. His colleague Malcolm joined Serco some 20 years ago from the Royal Air Force, and has been a vital member of the Supply Team which supports the radar.

Frank and Malcolm were joined by three Serco colleagues who have each also worked at the station for several decades:

• Belinda Little came to Fylingdales and Serco some 40 years ago, initially as a temp, and now works in the Technical Support Office.
• Bob Clarkson is Serco’s resident radar expert and as the Chief Systems Engineer, is the “go to guy” for any problems with the radar. Bob recently clocked up 35 years loyal service.
• Richard Green has been with Serco 30 years, and has been responsible for the maintenance of the various electrical systems within the radar.

Martin Hynes, Serco Contract Manager at RAF Fylingdales, said:

“RAF Fylingdales is a unique and special place, which feels more like a family than workforce. Our team are proud of what they do and are extremely loyal, which is reflected in the number of our colleagues who have served for several decades. The work the team do isn’t always high profile but it plays a vital role in protecting the UK, so we wanted to celebrate and say thank you to these five colleagues for a remarkable combined service of more than 150 years.”

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