First World War The first use of Lakenheath Warren as a
Royal Flying Corps airfield was during the
First World War, when the area was made into a bombing and ground-attack range for aircraft flying from
RFC Feltwell and RFC Thetford.
Second World War In 1940, the
Air Ministry selected Lakenheath as an alternative for nearby
RAF Mildenhall and used it as a decoy airfield. Surfaced runways were constructed in 1941, with the main runway being , and the two subsidiary runways at . In late 1941, Lakenheath was used by RAF flying units on detachment. The station soon functioned as a Mildenhall satellite base with
Short Stirling bombers of
No. 149 Squadron dispersed from the parent airfield as conditions allowed. The squadron exchanged its
Vickers Wellingtons for Stirlings late in November 1941. After becoming fully operational with its new aircraft, the squadron moved into Lakenheath on 6 April 1942 and remained until mid 1944 when the squadron moved the short distance to
RAF Methwold, just inside Norfolk. One Stirling pilot,
Flight Sergeant Rawdon Middleton, was posthumously awarded the
Victoria Cross for valour on the night of 28–29 November 1942, when despite serious face wounds and loss of blood from shell-fire during a raid on the
Fiat works at
Turin in Italy, he brought the damaged aircraft back towards southern England. With fuel nearly exhausted his crew were ordered to bail out. On 21 June 1943, newly re-formed
No. 199 Squadron re-located to RAF Lakenheath as a second Stirling squadron. It conducted mine laying operations at sea before moving to
RAF North Creake in Norfolk on 1 May 1944. No. 149 Squadron ended its association with RAF Lakenheath the same month, taking its Stirlings to RAF Methwold. The reason for the departure of the two bomber squadrons was Lakenheath's selection for upgrading to a Very Heavy Bomber airfield, which left the airfield closed to aircraft until April 1947. On 30 April 1956, two
Lockheed U-2s were
airlifted to Lakenheath to form CIA Detachment A. The first flight of the U-2 was on 21 May. The
Central Intelligence Agency unit did not remain long, moving to
Wiesbaden Air Base,
West Germany in June 1956. On 10 October 1956, a
United States Navy Douglas R6D-1 Liftmaster disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean after departure from RAF Lakenheath for a flight to
Lajes Field in the
Azores. The aircraft was on a
Military Air Transport Service flight carrying 50 members of the
307th Bombardment Wing, on their way home to the United States after a
temporary duty assignment and a US Navy crew of nine. All 59 personnel on board were lost.
48th Tactical Fighter Wing of 494 Tactical Fighter Squadron 48 TFW, 1965 Following French president
Charles de Gaulle's insistence in 1959 that all non-French nuclear-capable forces should be withdrawn from his country, the USAF began a redeployment of its
North American F-100-equipped units from France. The
48th Fighter Wing left its base at
Chaumont-Semoutiers Air Base, France on 15 January 1960, its aircraft arriving at Lakenheath that afternoon. •
492d Tactical Fighter Squadron (blue colours, later assigned tailcode 'LR') •
493d Tactical Fighter Squadron (yellow colours, later assigned tailcode 'LS') •
494th Tactical Fighter Squadron (red colours, later assigned tailcode 'LT') Beginning in late 1971, the 48th TFW started its conversion to the
McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II, receiving aircraft that had previously served in
Vietnam, with all squadrons now marked with the new 'LN' tailcode. The delivery of F-4s was intermittent, and working up to a full strength of 73 aircraft took 2½ years. Consequently the wing only resumed its full NATO and USAFE commitments on 1st July 1975. However the F-4's service with the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing was short, as operation "Ready Switch" resulted in 48th Tactical Fighter Wing receiving
General Dynamics F-111s in June 1977. Vanessa Baird, whose father was a black GI based in Lakenheath airfield and whose mother was a Liverpudlian, was born in April 1958. Her father did not know about the birth. Her mother's family was very disapproving after they found out. So Vanessa and her mother went to Norwich. There, according to Baird, some of the women married black GIs and went to the US with them. Elaine Brown had a similar experience to Vanessa. Her mother met black GI Harold Grigsby when he was based at Lakenheath in the early 1950s. Her father was sent back to the US before Elaine was born in 1953. Elaine's mother told her her father's name and that he was from
Washington DC. In 1996 with her husband Elaine finally found her father and met her American family. To support the new aircraft and its specialised training requirements, the
495th Tactical Fighter Squadron was activated on 1 April 1977 as a replacement training unit for the wing's other squadrons. This made the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing unique within the United States Air Forces in Europe as the only combat wing operating four fighter squadrons and its own training unit. By 1979, the wing had flown the highest number of hours recorded by a F-111 unit in a single fiscal year. Following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing deployed F-111Fs and personnel to Saudi Arabia as part of
Operation Desert Shield and subsequently
Operation Desert Storm. During the conflict, Lakenheath-based aircraft flew thousands of combat sorties and delivered precision-guided munitions against a wide range of targets, including armoured vehicles, bunkers and airfields. On 22 March 2011, F-15E 91-0304 crash-landed and was destroyed in eastern
Libya after reportedly suffering from a mechanical failure. Both crewmen ejected and were safely recovered. On 8 October 2014, F-15D 86-0182 belonging to the 493d Fighter Squadron crashed during a training flight in a field outside Spalding, Lincolnshire. The pilot successfully ejected and was shortly recovered to RAF Lakenheath on board a
Sikorsky HH-60 Pave Hawk. In addition to supporting three combat-ready squadrons of fighter aircraft, the Liberty Wing also housed the
56th Rescue Squadron's
HH-60G combat search and rescue helicopters until its re-location to
Aviano Air Base in 2018. On 15 June 2020, an F-15C belonging to the 493d Fighter Squadron crashed during a training flight in the North Sea, approximately 74 nautical miles east of
Scarborough. The pilot 1st Lt. Kenneth "Kage" Allen, was killed; his body was later recovered. The planned withdrawal of the F-15C/D fleet from RAF Lakenheath began in September 2021. The process was temporarily delayed due to heightened tensions in Eastern Europe following the Russian military build-up near Ukraine. On 27 April 2022, the final four F-15C aircraft of the 493d Fighter Squadron departed RAF Lakenheath for the United States marking the end of 45 years of continuous USAF F-15 Eagle air superiority operations in Europe. The aircraft were to be split between two squadrons, with an increase of 1,200 military personnel and 60-100 civilian workers. The F-35 would operate alongside the two existing F-15E Strike Eagle squadrons.
Squadrons The
495th Fighter Squadron was reactivated on 1 October 2021 to be the first Lightning II squadron at RAF Lakenheath, with the first aircraft arriving on 15 December 2021. The 493d Fighter Squadron was re-equipped with the F-35A Lightning II following the retirement of its F-15C/D fleet in 2022. The transition marked a shift from an air superiority mission to a multirole capability. Key facilities included: • Two six-bay maintenance hangars (Hangars 4-1 and 4-2) for service, maintenance, storage and staff support • Hangar 6 (Consolidated Parts Store) and aircraft ground equipment facilities • Dual squadron operations/aircraft maintenance unit (AMU) building, combining squadron operations, mission planning, administration and maintenance storage • Flight simulator and training facilities • Corrosion control and wash rack facilities, including paint and sanding booths • Residential accommodation, dining facility, and hospital • High school for up to 560 students. The operational surfaces were expanded: • Charlie Apron was redeveloped to accommodate up to 42 F-35A aircraft in dual-occupancy shelters, totaling 78,392 square metres • Alpha-Bravo Apron was extended to accommodate up to 38 F-15 aircraft on open apron, totaling 54,179 square metres, allowing consolidation of F-15E operations
Infrastructure delivery In August 2018, a $148.4 million (£116.7M) investment for F-35A infrastructure at Lakenheath was authorized by the Trump administration. In November 2018, the
Defence Infrastructure Organisation awarded a £160M contract for construction to a joint venture between
Kier Group and VolkerFitzpatrick. Demolition of the first of eighteen buildings began in March 2019 to make way for the F-35 campus. The Alpha-Bravo Apron work was completed in August 2020, allowing F-15E Strike Eagle operations of the 492d and 494th Fighter Squadrons to be consolidated on one ramp.
Incidents and accidents Two accidents involving nuclear weapons happened at RAF Lakenheath, in 1956 and 1961. On 2 March 2011, members of the 48th Security Forces Squadron were involved in a
shooting at Frankfurt Airport in Germany. The members were on a bus bound for
Ramstein Air Base in Germany when they were attacked by a lone gunman. On 7 January 2014, a
Sikorsky HH-60 Pave Hawk from the base crashed following a bird strike while on a low-level training exercise with another helicopter (also a Pave Hawk), into the
Cley Marshes near
Cley next the Sea on the nearby North Norfolk coast. All four occupants were killed. A
US Marine Corps Boeing F/A-18 Hornet of
VMFA-232 "Red Devils" from
MCAS Miramar, California, crashed after taking off from RAF Lakenheath on 21 October 2015. The pilot, Major Taj "Cabbie" Sareen, was killed.
Drone incidents In 2024, between 20 November and 22 November, small
unmanned aerial systems (UASs) were spotted in the vicinity of and over RAF Lakenheath,
RAF Mildenhall, and
RAF Feltwell. The number of UASs fluctuated and they ranged in size and configuration.
F-15E Strike Eagles, based at Lakenheath, were reportedly scrambled in response to the drones as they impacted local flight operations.
RAF Regiment personnel were later deployed to the bases with the ORCUS C-UAS system in response to a second sighting of unidentified drones in the night hours of 25 November. ==Based units==