Category: United Kingdom

The Royal Air Force Fairford was built on 1944 with the primary mission of accommodating the British and the American troop gliders and carriers that will be used during their invasion of Normandy. After the World War II, the United States Air Force gained control of the base to have access to their strategic was operations. The first project of the USAF is the construction of the 10,000 foot runway which until today is the longest runway in the entire United Kingdom.

Over the years, RAF Fairford was awarded the Concorde’s British Flight Test Center on 1969 until 1978 and on 1979; the USAF landed the squadron of KC-135 Stato-tankers which played a primary role in attacking Libya on 1986. The base gained more popularity when the airfield was used by the Space Shuttle as its abort site and because of the way the runway was built and the location; it became the site for the United States bomber fleet.

Located near Cirencester, Glocestershire, Royal Air Force Fairford and is actively used by the USAF based in Europe is found 60 miles away from RAf Croughton and 54 miles apart from Bristol. Because of the ongoing base operations like the air refueling operations, the population of RAF FAirford was tripled in just two months because of the arrival of the people showing their support to the NATO’s Operation Allied Force.

Currently, RAF Fairford is upgrading the runway and its fuel bunkers with a budget of US $90M. This renovation is the most funded military construction project of the NATO County ever since the cold war between United States and United Kingdom broke out. The US has plans of making the base the long range stealth bombers while the Pentagon is eyeing the base as the site for the bombers deployment.

Royal Air Force Fairford Images

The Royal Air Force of Alconbury is based in Cambridgeshire, England which is 60 miles from the northern part of London. Now an active unit of the Royal Air Force used to be under the command of the United States Air Force was a non-flying facility. The United States Air Force that is based in Cambrdgeshire has three RAF stations and one of which is the RAF Alconbury.  They are called the “Tri-Base Area” together with RAF Molesworth and RAF Upwood.

The 8^th Air Force which was established before the onset of World War 2 is still active and used by the USAF, after the war; it houses the reconnaissance, weather, bomber and fighter wings. The 423d Air Base Group serves as the host installation in RAF Alconbury which is compose of an air base, engineering services, security service and medical services while giving support to the base daily activities and manages the air base services, housing and other facilities. The 423 ABG orderly rooms and the command section are housed in Alconbury with the other support groups plus the facilities which offers recreation facilities for the military men and dependents of the Tri-Base Area.

RAF Alconbury also housed the 501^st Combat Support Wing whose role is to oversees that all the UK bases of the United States are fully equipped, sustained and trained perfectly to be at par in answering to the needs of NATo and United States war fighters flying deployment, global command, theater munitions movements and the communications for the deployed missions, supports for the joint training and theater intelligence operations.

The 501^st Combat Support Wing and the 8^th Air Base Group provide support to the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and Joint Analysis Center both of which are intelligence agency of the military which monitors in the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

Royal Air Force Alconbury Images

The Royal Air Force Croughton is a communication base of the United States Air Force located in Northampton, England. This is the home for the 422^nd Air Base Group whose primary mission is to offer services, unit support, force protection and communication in their worldwide operations. They provide their services to the US European Command, Department of State, NATo, Department of Defense and the United States Central Command.

RAF Croughton was established on 1938 under the name Brackley Landing Group and was changed to RAF Brackley on 1940 and on 1941 it was named RAF Station Croughton.  It has a base area of 694 acres with three grass runways and it became a satellite station used for the night flying training mostly for the Commonwealth pilots.

It was designated as an emergency airfield for the damaged and attacked bombers that were returning from their missions all over Europe but the training field was also attacked on several instances because it was not strongly defended which made the area an easy target for the enemy. Night training in the airfield in minimized because of the attention they give in the middle of the blacked out area.

Originally the military base was used as storage site for the ammunition, after the World War II it was taken over by the US Air Force as a site for their communication purposes. Today, it is the considered as having one of the largest military switchboards and ranked third in all of the United States military communications based in Europe.  RAF Croughton handles around 30% of the United States military traffic in the entire Europe and currently, handles 25% communication traffic from Europe to the United States.

The used to be separate unit of the 422^nd ABG was merged with the 501^st Combat Support Wing when the 501 CSW changed the 38 CSW in order to align the entire prime Geographically Separated Units based in England.

Royal Air Force Croughton Images