RAF to get F35A ?

[Col Nago]

I’ve sad it before, there’s a base in Fife that’s used on an almost daily basis, with fully functional HAS and access on its doorstep to the North Sea training areas. All it really needs is investment in large volume fuel storage (which is already being looked at) and increased base housing. There’s even a huge new school across the Eden estuary, and they’re building a new medical facility for the current base residents.

[Malcolm]

The only runway in the far south west suitable for P-8 ops is St Mawgan. Cudrose is way too short for B-737 type ops in anything but near perfect weather, and it's prone to all sorts of weather related issues. Boscombe would be my second choice down here, but if you've gone that far up country you might as well go to Brize.

[C24]

Lossiemouth

05/23) is 2,764 m (9,068 ft; 3,023 yd) long and the secondary runway (10/28) is 1,850 m (6,070 ft; 2,020 yd) long

St Mawgan

17 Jul 2021 — Runway width was 100 yards. St Mawgan (Coastal Command) also was improved with the main runway extended to 3000 yards by 100 yards

Predannack Airfield
Runways
Direction Length and surface
18/36 1,405 metres (4,610 ft) Asphalt
13/31 884 metres (2,900 ft) Asphalt
09/27 1,309 metres (4,295 ft) Asphalt

Marham Runways
Designator Length Width
1/19 1855 91
6/24 2786

RNAS Culdrose (HMS Seahawk)
RNAS Culdrose
Airfield information
Identifiers ICAO: EGDR, WMO: 038090
Elevation 81.6 metres (268 ft) AMSL
Runways Direction Length and surface 11/29 1,829 metres (6,001 ft) Asphalt 18/36 1,055 metres (3,461 ft) Asphalt 06/24 1,045 metres (3,428 ft) Asphalt

The weather at Culdrose , St. Mawgag and Predannack is similar.

F-35B could operate from Culdrose and be dispersed to Predannack.

Edited
RNAS Yeovilton (HMS Heron)
Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton
Identifiers IATA: YEO, ICAO: EGDY, WMO: 038530
Elevation 22.8 metres (75 ft) AMSL
Runways Direction Length and surface 08/26 2,292 metres (7,520 ft) concrete 04/22 1,463 metres (4,800 ft) concrete

[warthog81]

I would imagine if we ever wanted an extra fast jet base in this country then either Leeming or Leuchars would be the logical choice. Leeming especially so as it currently operates fast jets.
In my dreams my local at Coltishall would be chosen but cannot see that ever happening.

Honington must be another remote possibility, even Wattisham but that seems less likely given it is now home to Army AH-64s.

Combat aircraft are now so costly seems wise to put them each in a HAS if you have enough capacity to do so. Putting a whole squadron into a hangar seems like a big risk.
It would be best to keep the bases that have HAS sites.

[Thunder]

HAS’ s offer next to no protection in todays World of advanced munitions. They offered blast protection nothing else in an age before GPS/INS, a direct hit and it would be reduced to a pile of rubble. Marham I don’t think use the HAS anymore and only the QRA at Lossie operate from them(2 Sqn I think only use them for storage and operate from the line).

[EGDR]

HAS’ s offer next to no protection in todays World of advanced munitions. They offered blast protection nothing else in an age before GPS/INS, a direct hit and it would be reduced to a pile of rubble. Marham I don’t think use the HAS anymore and only the QRA at Lossie operate from them(2 Sqn I think only use them for storage and operate from the line).

From something designed to breach them, they're no good and never have been, but they offer more than adequate protection from non-direct hits as well as the now ubiquitous drone attacks. Protection is about risk mitigation not risk removal.

F-35B could operate from Culdrose and be dispersed to Predannack.

Even putting aside the fact most of the time now it's closed off to manned aircraft because of unmanned operations, there is nowhere near enough infrastructure - both of an operational and of a security nature - at Predannack to support detaching a fighter unit there. I know there's some fantasy thinking going on here, but this is really pie-in-the-sky - as much as I'd love to see F-35Bs bashing the circuit from my kitchen window.

Re St Mawgan - your stats on runway width are from the Cold War, the declared width has been reduced by about half and a displaced threshold makes it slightly shorter than before. More accurately, of course, it's Newquay's runway, not St Mawgan's (as I said before) - it's not an MoD facility.

[TonyO]

HAS’ s offer next to no protection in todays World of advanced munitions. They offered blast protection nothing else in an age before GPS/INS, a direct hit and it would be reduced to a pile of rubble. Marham I don’t think use the HAS anymore and only the QRA at Lossie operate from them(2 Sqn I think only use them for storage and operate from the line).

RAF F-35Bs are housed in HASes at Marham, and would probably operate from them in a more serious threat environment.

Worth remembering that Russia has struggled to take out Ukrainian airfields as they lack precision weapons, notably missiles, so HASes are not a bad investment from a NATO point of view.

[warthog81]

It must be a lot harder for an enemy to take out multiple hardened aircraft shelters across an airfield than a few large soft skin hangars.

[Thunder]

Not if you use GPS guided munitions, whether delivered by aircraft or missile. However if you want to put a whole base out of action, then take out the runway first, then pick off the aircraft one by one.

[warthog81]

Must still be easier taking out 3 or 4 soft hangars vs 24 or so hardened aircraft shelters.

[Enobob]

If I remember exactly, the original plan was for the P8 and Wedgetail to be based at Waddington. This made sense as it's the ISTAR hub.
If more f35's were ordered, would Leeming make a good place as a second hub?

No matter how we speculate, we'll not hear anything util those in charge see fit to tell us.

Yeovilton for the Navy F-35B squadrons, the base operated the Sea Harrier for many years without issues.

There are no "Navy F-35B squadrons" the UK F-35 force is one joint organisation known as 'The Lightning Force' and is staffed and managed by the RAF and RN in joint units. The squadron number plates are merely for historical reference purposes and have no reflection whatsoever on the make up or role of that particular unit. For example 617 Sqn is currently commanded by an RN officer and 809 NAS is staffed by RAF as well as RN air and groundcrew. All UK F-35's are owned by Air Command RAF, hence no 'Royal Navy' marks on any aircraft. The P-8 force was never going to Waddington, that was the initial base for the 8 Sqn E-7A Wedgetails until it was decided to co-locate them with the P-8 fleet, which makes sense as currently there are only going to be 3 of them...

[Philly1971]

Just like Covid bought back the QR code, I think the Ukraine situation has bought back the HAS. Having a £60m aircraft sitting in the open, at the mercy of a £300 drone with some explosives strapped to it would be madness. You have armed forces as a deterrent, something that can mobilise if required. However, history shows you may also be hit by a preemptive strike with no warning, and with that, as the receiver, you just have to come out of day one relatively unscathed. Putting you aircraft in HAS, ideally with more HAS than aircraft, I think gives you the best chance. On the actual aircraft, it seems to make sense to buy more F35Bs, as they don’t just have to be for the aircraft carrier. They also don’t need a runway ,and will ultimately carry both Meteors, and Spear 3, so while not as versatile as the Typhoon, should runways be taken out for the Typhoons, they will be capable of defending UK airspace. However, with the government going all growth, even talking about a 3rd runway at Heathrow, it would seem to make sense ordering more Typhoons based on the fact that it protects more UK jobs than F35s (I assume).

[Vulture 01]

Going back to the discussion on HAS earlier. One point to remember is that your enemy cannot see through it, so would have to target all those on a base to be sure of whacking all the operational jets. How many HAS did we hit in GW 1, only to find nothing inside?

As for the third Heathrow runway, I remain doubtful. Near where I live three major, overdue infrastructure projects have been delayed, with two cancelled, due to Green Lobby or other environmental issues (would you believe bats and snails). Once I see a bulldozer start up, with Boris Johnson laying down in front of it, then I'll believe it!

[Thunder]

Ever heard of Satellites, with real time reconnaissance it would only take a few moments to find out what HAS’s were occupied. Things have changed greatly since the Gulf War especially in the Precision weapon department, one a/c could take out a whole base of HAS’s from distance. Not sure what level our friends in Russia are at, as I don’t think they’ve shown their full capabilities against Ukraine, but they can’t be far behind the West. However they have to get within 100-150km of target first.

[TonyO]

Ever heard of Satellites, with real time reconnaissance it would only take a few moments to find out what HAS’s were occupied. Things have changed greatly since the Gulf War especially in the Precision weapon department, one a/c could take out a whole base of HAS’s from distance. Not sure what level our friends in Russia are at, as I don’t think they’ve shown their full capabilities against Ukraine, but they can’t be far behind the West. However they have to get within 100-150km of target first.

They are massively behind the west when it comes to precision munitions, even if they were in a better place, that's when ACE comes into play, ensuring the jets aren't caught on the ground in one location. The only way Russia could effectively strike an airfield would be to take entire submarine load of cruise missiles and bombard the place, and but then they will probably be better off attacking other targets such as critical infrastructure. If the Russians want to halt RAF operations, Spetsnatz will probably kill the pilots in their beds the night before conflict is declared. Nice thought eh, but there are no immigration controls in place against Russian citizens.

[Philly1971]

Ever heard of Satellites, with real time reconnaissance it would only take a few moments to find out what HAS’s were occupied. Things have changed greatly since the Gulf War especially in the Precision weapon department, one a/c could take out a whole base of HAS’s from distance. Not sure what level our friends in Russia are at, as I don’t think they’ve shown their full capabilities against Ukraine, but they can’t be far behind the West. However they have to get within 100-150km of target first.

I think they would help as long as they are at other bases, ie with a proper fence, preferably HAS and RAF regiment, or other trained defensive force properly installed (like RAF Honnigton). Do a quick search on Google maps and see how many HAS are sitting empty at Honington, Leuchers and Leeming for a start, suddenly that makes a lot of targets needed to be hit spot on. To be fair, If a foreign power are able to to get within 100km of Coningsby I think we would already have lost. However, these days I think a first strike is as likely to come from operatives acting inside the country as it is from an external strike, possibly using drones, and therefore both limited dispersal, within protected areas, and using HAS would seem to cover most options.

[Thunder]

Well Honington is a non starter, it doesn’t even a functioning runway. Not sure what the RAF Regiment can offer nowadays as they lost all Air Defence capabilities about 20yrs ago(unless now reinstated). An attack from within using drones, highly unlikely unless you can sneak a few dozen 4m long drones through customs. As you say if the enemy can get within 150km of any base within the UK , we’re screwed so again HAS’s offer very little nowadays.

[warthog81]

You could also use places like Boscombe Down and St Mawgan which have shelters. Having the jets scattered over multiple sites spread across the whole country must be safer in a wartime scenario than having them all stuck in two bases.

[jag56]

RAF Honington runway is active, although not heavily used. Transport aircraf have been using it recently.

[Undertaker]

Honington runway is shown as 2745m in the AIP