RAF Mildenhall to close. Lakenheath to get F-35 by 2020

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I would'nt have thought the RC's would operate out of Lakenheath, as the cables would cause a problem for them.They would have to be taken down for any movements to prevent ripping off the underside aerials, and that would interfere with the F15 ops.

I'd suggest airfield operations and capabilities accounted for less than 10% of the decision, where to house 500 people, provide flight and life support for 200 air crew, and the politics of job loses in one side of the country and new jobs being created in the other side will almost certainly have been far more important.

If I was a betting man, RC-135 operations will have a far higher priority over almost all F-15 operations at Lakenheath so whether the base teams like it or not, Lakenheath's rule books will be re-written so that fighters don't affect RC missions.

[galaxysi]

I hope the RC's do operate out of Lakenheath and if they do i'm sure they can fit it around the F-15 ops, only needing to rig/derig the cables for takeoff and landing .One thing though which i guess is easily solved is hangarage for a C135 size aircraft,but if the rumours of TDY tankers operating out of LN is correct i'm sure one can be built somewhere.

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I hope the RC's do operate out of Lakenheath and if they do i'm sure they can fit it around the F-15 ops

Galaxysi, just to clarify my previous post, the F-15s will have to fit around RC-135 ops, but I'm sure they'll all be one happy family!

[graham luxton]

Considering the number of movements the RC operation generates at Mildenhall its hardly likely to impact much on 48FW activities at Lakenheath, if indeed that's where their headed. Also, some movements take place well before normal fighter operations start, therefore making them even less of a problem.

Looking back to the `Cold War` days and the latter half of 1970 when RC's and their supporting KC-135A's were temporarily located at Lakenheath while the non-flying part of the operation was based at Mildenhall.

The following examples are fairly typical of what it was like:

Tues 25 Aug
00356 RC-135D 6SW Eielson
14842 RC-135C 55SRW Offutt
14844 RC-135C 55SRW, Dep with 10325
0-71490 KC-135A 7BW Carswell
0-72591 KC-135A (unit?) Looked like a 454BW badge from Columbus but that unit inactivated in 1969
0-91486 KC-135A 17BW Wright-Patterson
10325 KC-135A 42BW Loring, dep with 14844 and arrived back after several hours.

Sat 10 Oct
0-53121 KC-135R 55SRW Offutt - the R in this case standing for Reconnaissance!
00362 RC-135D 6SW Eielson
414841 RC-135C 55SRW - marked as "414841"
0-63625 KC-135A (unit?) Looked like a 465BW badge from Robins but that unit inactivated in 1968. Dep 1000L
0-71430 KC-135A 92SAW Fairchild
23504 KC-135A 509BW Pease
38039 KC-135A 379BW Wurtsmith

Fri 16 Oct
0-53121 Dep with 38039
00362
14846 RC-135C 55SRW
91483 KC-135A (unit?) - no badge
23504
23541 KC-135A 11SAW Altus
38039 Dep with 0-53121 and arrived back after several hours.

All the KC-135A's were on rotation from the US and temporarily attached to the 98SW at Torrejon for about six weeks. From there, the 98SW and its forerunner the 3970SW, detached them as and when required to support the UK ELINT operation with hundreds of tankers participating in short term visits to Brize Norton, Upper Heyford, Lakenheath and Mildenhall until the latter base assumed Torrejon's role as the primary KC-135 base in Europe in 1976.
Based upon the history of this operation I think it highly likely that where the RC's go, tankers will follow!

Also worth mentioning is that Lakenheath was very active during the time Mildenhall could only accept limited movements The 10th ACCS EC-135H's were also operating from Lakenheath and there were frequent visits by C-97's, C-124's, C-133's and C-141's amongst a number of other types. Add about 70 based F-100's to the mix and you got a very sharp Fire Department well practised in the art of rigging and de-rigging arrestor cables!

[page_verify]

Thanks Graham. How do the number of RC-135s in service today compare with the number in service in 1970?

[quid21]

Is there enough space at Lakenheath considering that the F-35 will be there, and also the possibility of retaining the F-15C for a bit longer (unless I misread somewhere) - I guess a couple of RC at a time, with tankers coming from Fairford perhaps? Or why not move RC operations and tankers to Fairford?!

Who knows.

[romeo bravo]

Who knows.

Exactly, no one knows at this stage. People can surmise about the future but there is another US Presidential election at least and who knows hat will happen in Europe.

Look what happened with Nimrod and Harrier, both bolts out of the blue with ramifications to stations.

What ever happens, will happen.

[graham luxton]

Thanks Graham. How do the number of RC-135s in service today compare with the number in service in 1970?

Difficult one p-v without a detailed check but I guess there were just a few more in 1970 as opposed to about 20 or so nowadays. Ones I saw operating from Upper Heyford were the 10 RC-135C's, the 3 RC-135D's and 3 (of 4) KC-135R's. Most of these later showed up at Lakenheath and Mildenhall. Amongst those that stayed well away from the UK were the Cobra Ball's and the RC-135M's the latter of which operated in the Pacific/South East Asia regions.

cheers,
Graham

[filmman]

It is not written that USAF will always stay in the UK!
Apparently the more strategic part of USAF wants to hang (is it a NATO funded base?) on to Fairford as it's been repeatedly used for bombing. So it's useful to have U2 transits; if Mildenhall shuts moving in RC 135s could be a useful extra presence and avoid accommodation pressure on Lakenheath. If Fairford also shuts the USAF will have all the inflexibility problems of only having Lakenheath.

Filmman

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Fairford's future is safe while the B-52 is still the primary bomb carrier into war zones as its the only base in Europe that can support B-52 war time operations. Once the Buff starts to shed missions to newer aircraft, then I can see Fairford becoming an expensive nice to have.

[skysearcher]

Interesting story here re lots of construction planned at LK (could this be RC-135 related or not) and F-35 arrival being pushed back approx 1 year to 2021+

http://www.defensenews.com/story/defens ... /86729876/

[Snoop 95]

I note that they ..."need to accommodate an additional 1200" airmen and women. Why build when (probably) that amount of billeting is already down the road at Mildenhall ?

[Agent K]

I note that they ..."need to accommodate an additional 1200" airmen and women. Why build when (probably) that amount of billeting is already down the road at Mildenhall ?

Because Mildenhall is closing. As much as it seems counter intuitive I'd imagine building accommodation on site at LN for ~1200 personnel is cheaper than having to maintaining a completely separate site at Mildenhall, sad though it is.

[CHINOOKER]

However,what if Novotnys' vision comes true and Lakenheath ends up as a Superbase,with over 100 a/c on site...is there room for anything else,being that the F35 operation will have to have it's own structure re maintenance/ground ops etc,etc.....possibly a case of "wishful thinking" I know,but you never know!. As an aside,if Trump gets in,we may end up with all sorts of stuff based here,especially as he seemingly wants to up the anti with a "Vlad the invader"

[bizfreeq]

If Trump gets in and, as you put it, ups the anti, all of this will be moot as there will be nothing left of anything!

[GVLCN]

Hopefully just seen the future at RIAT F-22 & F-35's together, would be nice if this replaced the F-15's at LN

[powerslave]

Hopefully just seen the future at RIAT F-22 & F-35's together, would be nice if this replaced the F-15's at LN

Well yeah,the F-35's are replacing the F-15C's.

Ian

[quid21]

I thought the C's were being kept a bit longer?

http://www.stripes.com/news/pentagon-f- ... d-1.293924

[powerslave]

I thought the C's were being kept a bit longer?

http://www.stripes.com/news/pentagon-f- ... d-1.293924

Overall i think the C's are going to be kept around for quite a while longer in the usaf and usang.
The ones at LN are as well,but eventually will be replaced with the F-35's.

[skysearcher]

Who knows how long the Cs will be at LK? I think the C's are now being kept at LK on temporary funding under the European Reassurance Initiative; an Obama administration temporary funding programme designed to mitigate against down-sizing at EUCOM in light of geo-political events in Ukraine and Syria. my understanding is the plan is still for eventual withdrawal of the Cs ?