Departure
93%
vs 95% ▼ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
RAF Mildenhall is a major United States Air Force base in Suffolk, England, home to the 100th Air Refueling Wing and its KC-135 Stratotankers, alongside special operations and combat support units. Sharing the region's dense military airspace with nearby RAF Lakenheath, it is one of the most significant US installations in the United Kingdom and a fascinating study for the simulator pilot interested in Cold War and modern USAF operations.
RAF Mildenhall lies near the town of Mildenhall in Suffolk, England, and despite its Royal Air Force name it is operated by the United States Air Force under USAFE-AFAFRICA, hosting the 100th Air Refueling Wing, the 352d Special Operations Wing and the 501st Combat Support Wing. For a simulator pilot, it is notable both for its heavy tanker and special-operations traffic and for a long and storied flying history, from prewar bomber operations through Cold War reconnaissance flights to its present-day role as one of the largest US Air Force presences in Britain.
The airfield sits near Bury Saint Edmunds in Suffolk, close to its sister base RAF Lakenheath, with which it shares approach and departure radar services given the common frequencies used for both stations. As an active military installation it lies within controlled airspace associated with USAF operations in the area, and civil VFR traffic should expect this airspace to be tightly managed around both fields.
RAF Mildenhall has a single physical runway, 10/28, a hard-surfaced, lit runway of approximately 10,200 feet in length, equipped with ILS on both approach directions. Field elevation is 26 feet.
Published frequencies for Mildenhall include TWR on 122.55 MHz, an ATIS on 37.55 MHz, and GND on 121.675 MHz. Approach and departure are provided jointly with Lakenheath, with APP (Lakenheath APP) on 136.5 MHz and DEP (Lakenheath DEP) on 25.03 MHz. Additional operational frequencies logged for the base include OPS/PTD on 131.975 MHz, CAC on 27.777 MHz, and PMSV (Metro) on 28.442 MHz. The runway is equipped with an ILS.
RAF Mildenhall opened on 16 October 1934 as one of the RAF's largest bomber stations, with Wing Commander Francis Linnell as its first station commander. Its early prominence was cemented when it hosted the Royal Aero Club's MacRobertson Air Race on 20 October 1934, drawing over 70,000 spectators; King George V and Queen Mary visited the base the day before the race, and the winning de Havilland Comet Grosvenor House, flown by Tom Campbell Black and C. W. A. Scott, departed from Mildenhall to Melbourne. The station received its first squadron, No. 99B Squadron with Handley Page Heyford bombers, shortly after opening, and King George V reviewed 350 aircraft there in 1935 during his Silver Jubilee, an event now commemorated by a memorial tablet at the base. During the Second World War, Mildenhall and its satellite airfields at Newmarket, Tuddenham and Lakenheath flew Wellington, Short Stirling and later Avro Lancaster bombers on RAF Bomber Command operations, dropping over 23,000 tons of bombs and laying 2,000 mines across more than 8,000 sorties, at a cost of over 200 aircraft and 2,000 aircrew. Among the losses was Pilot Officer Rawdon Hume Middleton, an Australian airman posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, who is buried at St John's Church in Beck Row. After the war the station was placed on standby before reopening as a joint USAF-RAF operation on 11 July 1950 under Strategic Air Command, hosting B-50 Superfortresses from 1951 and KC-97 Stratofreighters from 1953 to 1958; in 1958 it became the Military Air Transport Service's main UK terminal. Through the late 1970s and 1980s it supported U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance operations. In January 2015 the US Department of Defense announced plans to end operations at Mildenhall and relocate them to Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany and elsewhere in the UK, but this decision was reversed in July 2020, confirming the base's continued future.
RAF Mildenhall remains an active United States Air Force installation, owned by the UK Ministry of Defence but operated by the US Air Force under USAFE-AFAFRICA. It is home to the 100th Air Refueling Wing along with the 352d Special Operations Wing and 501st Combat Support Wing, and together with RAF Lakenheath forms the largest concentration of US Air Force personnel in the United Kingdom. As an active military base, prior permission is required for any flight to or from the airfield.
