RAF MILDENHALL, England — Greenham Common, once home to some of the most destructive weapons in the U.S. arsenal, is now home to weapons from “a galaxy far, far away.”

Models of the Millennium Falcon and an X-Wing, both prominent spacecraft in the original “Star Wars” movie trilogy, were spotted on the former military base by Matthew Myatt, an instructor with the Airbourne Aviation flying club.

Some media have speculated that the models are being used to shoot “Episode VII,” the next installment of the “Star Wars” movie series. Pinewood Studios, with headquarters near London, is the location for the movie’s principal photography, according to a studio news release.

Myatt was in an airplane flying over Greenham Common on Sept. 5 to take promotional photographs of Airbourne’s aircraft when something on the ground caught his attention. Myatt said he took photos and then kept flying.

Later he examined the pictures and realized he had captured images of “Star Wars” spaceships, he said. Myatt showed his son, who like his father, is a “Star Wars” fan.

“He was, like me, absolutely over the moon and excited about it,” Myatt told Stars and Stripes via Skype.

Greenham Common was home to 96 U.S. nuclear cruise missiles for a period during the Cold War, leading a group of women activists to set up a “Peace Camp” nearby, which endured for years. Under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty, which was signed in 1987 by the United States and the Soviet Union, all missiles were withdrawn from Greenham by 1991. The U.S. subsequently returned the base to the U.K., which later closed it.

“Star Wars: Episode VII” is scheduled for release in December 2015.

mathis.adam@stripes.com Twitter: @AMathisStripes

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