A U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II assigned to the 495th Fighter Squadron takes off from RAF Lakenheath, England, Sept. 17, 2025. New munitions-related facilities are being planned for the base to support the F-35A fighters. (Renee Nicole Finona/U.S. Air Force)
New munitions-related facilities to support the Air Force’s F-35A fighter program are being planned at RAF Lakenheath, the largest U.S. base in the United Kingdom.
Three projects — described in West Suffolk planning documents as a conventional munitions project, a munitions inspection facility and precision-guided missiles — are awaiting local government approval, the British defense ministry said Thursday in response to questions.
“If planning permission is granted, we expect to award the contract in the coming weeks,” the ministry said, adding that if the work is allowed to proceed, completion is expected in mid-2029.
Both the ministry and the Air Force declined to provide additional details about the projects.
Local officials must make sure the projects will not pose a significant environmental impact before giving the OK, West Suffolk Council spokesman Mark Beaumont said.
Such decisions usually take up to eight weeks, Beaumont said. The council received the applications Sept. 24, according to dates included in the online planning documents.
The F-35A is the Air Force’s latest fifth-generation fighter. The United States’ first permanent overseas F-35A squadrons were established at RAF Lakenheath in 2021 and 2022 and fall under the 48th Fighter Wing.
Airman 1st Class Cortlin Patterson sends off an F-35A Lightning II at RAF Lakenheath, England, in March 2024. New munitions-related facilities are being planned at Lakenheath, the largest U.S. base in the United Kingdom, to support the Air Force’s F-35A program. (Gaspar Cortez/U.S. Air Force)
The development under consideration by West Suffolk would add to broader modernization efforts at RAF Lakenheath, which is considered one of NATO’s most strategically important airbases.
Recent satellite imagery revealed new construction of a security perimeter around 10 protective aircraft shelters in a “designated nuclear area” of the base, according to a report published earlier this month by the Federation of American Scientists.
“(It’s) the latest measure in a series of upgrades as the base prepares for the ability to store U.S. nuclear weapons,” the report said.
Amid the ongoing war in Ukraine that followed Russia’s full-scale invasion in early 2022, NATO members have been strengthening defenses out of concerns over broader Kremlin aggression.
Since Air Force documents in 2023 mentioned “surety” construction at Lakenheath, speculation has grown that the U.S. intends to return some of its nuclear arsenal to the site, after removing such weapons from the U.K. in 2008.
The term “surety” is typically associated with the security and control of nuclear weapons and related infrastructure.
The F-35A has been certified to carry the B61-12 nuclear bomb, according to the Air Force. However, the military does not publicly specify which units are operationally armed, and neither the U.S. nor the U.K. has confirmed the deployment of U.S. nuclear weapons to the base.
The wording of the planning applications submitted to the West Suffolk Council indicates that the proposed projects would support conventional F-35A operations.
According to NATO terminology, “conventional munitions” explicitly excludes nuclear ordnance, and the B61-12s are gravity bombs, not “precision-guided missiles.”
