Pentagon Consolidates European Facilities, Names UK Base for F-35

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) announced that Royal Air Force station Lakenheath, UK, will be the first European base for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. In parallel with the basing decision, the Pentagon said it will return RAF Mildenhall to UK control as part of a facilities consolidation that also affects U.S. bases in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal and Italy.

The US Air Force plans to permanently station two F-35 squadrons with 24 fighters each at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk beginning in 2020. The station currently hosts the 48th Fighter Wing, which operates three squadrons of F-15 fighters and one of HH-60G helicopters. The F-35 squadrons will require 1,200 support personnel, partially offsetting the 3,200 U.S. personnel who will be relocated from RAF Mildenhall. The latter airbase is home to the 100th Air Refueling Wing (ARW), which operates a squadron of KC-135R Stratotankers, and the 95th Reconnaissance Squadron, which operates RC-135 Rivet Joint surveillance aircraft on periodic detachments. The KC-135s will move to Ramstein airbase in Germany, while the Rivet Joints will likely fly in future from RAF Waddington, where the Royal Air Force recently received its own RC-135s.

Another unit at Mildenhall, the 352nd Special Operations Group, operates MC-130J Commando II and CV-22B Osprey aircraft. It will relocate to Spangdahlem airbase in Germany.

At a January 8 briefing at the Pentagon, officials said basing F-35s at RAF Lakenheath will benefit the UK economy even as the U.S. consolidates elsewhere in the country. The DOD will also divest RAF Alconbury and Molesworth, former airfields that are now serving as housing and intelligence bases, respectively, transferring most of their personnel to RAF Croughton, which is currently a communications base.

“The presence of U.S. F-35s at Lakenheath will lead to new possibilities for collaboration with the United Kingdom, such as the potential for greater training and wider support opportunities,” said Derek Chollet, assistant secretary of defense for international affairs.

The UK plans to base its own F-35s at nearby RAF Marham. In December, the F-35 Joint Program Office said Italy and Turkey will perform the majority of heavy airframe and engine maintenance on F-35s based in Europe.

The DOD will return 15 sites to their host nations as part of a “European Infrastructure Consolidation” that was two years in planning. It expects the consolidation, which it equated to the base realignmnet and closure process for domestic facilities, will save the department $500 million annually. Chollet said the presence in Europe of 67,000 U.S. troops will remain “roughly the same” at the end of the process.