Qualla: RAF Feltwell

RAF Feltwell: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bob Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0. The same patch of Norfolk farmland that once held Royal Air Force bombers and, later, Thor nuclear missiles is now used to track satellites in orbit. RAF Feltwell, in the flat fens about ten miles west of Thetford, has spent eight decades adapting to whichever piece of geopolitical hardware needed a home. It was built in the late 1930s during the expansion that braced Britain for the coming war. After 1945 it hosted Thor intermediate-range nuclear missiles. From 1989 it carried out passive space surveillance for the United States Air Force. In November 2024, small drones appeared overhead at night - unidentified, persistent, and serious enough that F-15E Strike Eagles were scrambled from neighbouring RAF Lakenheath and RAF Regiment personnel were deployed with anti-drone systems to defend the base.

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Image: Bob Jones | CC BY-SA 2.0

RAF Feltwell: Bomber Station

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Deben Dave, CC BY-SA 3.0. Feltwell opened during the late-1930s RAF expansion, laid out to the standard pattern that produced its near-identical neighbours at RAF Marham, RAF Watton, and RAF West Raynham. During the Second World War it was home to a succession of heavy bomber squadrons - first Wellingtons...

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Image: User:Deben Dave | CC BY-SA 3.0

RAF Feltwell: Thor in the Fields

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Megan Allen, CC BY 2.0. Between 1958 and 1963, Feltwell hosted PGM-17 Thor intermediate-range ballistic missiles - sixty feet of liquid-fuelled rocket with a thermonuclear warhead, jointly operated by the RAF and the US Air Force under a dual-key arrangement that gave both governments a veto over launch...

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Image: Megan Allen | CC BY 2.0

RAF Feltwell: Eyes on Orbit

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The original uploader was William M. Connolley at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0. From 1989 the base hosted the US Air Force's 5th Space Surveillance Squadron, part of the Passive Space Surveillance Network. The squadron's job was to track the physical location of emitting satellites in orbit. That data, combined with information from other systems, was used t...

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Image: The original uploader was William M. Connolley at English Wikipedia. | CC BY-SA 3.0

RAF Feltwell: Space Force

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Department of Defense. American Forces Information Service. Defense Visual Information Center. 1994, Public domain. In September 2020 the 18th Intelligence Squadron, which had administered Detachment 4 at Feltwell, was inactivated and immediately reactivated as the United States Space Force's 73rd Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Squadron, assigned to Space Delta 7 and still hoste...

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Image: Department of Defense. American Forces Information Service. Defense Visual Information Center. 1994 | Public domain

RAF Feltwell: The Drones of November 2024

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bob Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0. Between 20 and 22 November 2024, small unmanned aerial systems appeared in the vicinity of, and over, RAF Feltwell - part of a wider series of drone incursions over American air bases in the United Kingdom that month, also affecting RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall. The drones v...

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Image: Bob Jones | CC BY-SA 2.0