The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is pleased to announce that a final decision has been taken on the location of the refuelling hub for the South Atlantic Airbridge (SAA). The SAA will continue to transit through Sal, Cape Verde until 2020, when the Ascension Island runway resurfacing project is expected to be complete.
Ascension Island, home to around 800 people, is even more cut off than it used to be after weekly flights linking the island to the UK were stopped - due to a dodgy runway and the wrong kind of RAF aircraft, according to a BBC report. The British overseas territory is the tip of an old volcano in the Atlantic Ocean, mid-way between Africa and Brazil. It's so remote, that when the Portuguese discovered it on Ascension Day in 1501, they didn't even bother colonizing it.
HMS Montrose has visited Ascension Island as part of her mission to promote British interests in the South Atlantic over the coming months. Ascension supports the airbridge which provides the vital link between the UK and MPA in the Falkland Islands, seat of British forces in the South Atlantic.