RAF Fairford's £25m revamp for US Air Force bombers complete

American bomber aircraft are set to benefit from new facilities at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. 

A £25m project to resurface taxiways and new aircraft parking stands have been completed at the station which is used by the US Air Force as a bomber forward operating base despite being owned by the UK Government.

The works were required to accommodate larger aircraft and upgrade or replace ageing facilities. Huge B-52 Stratofortress long-range bombers are often seen at RAF Fairford.

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A specialist team had to remove the top layers of more than 1,200m of Tarmac taxiway to the northeast of the runway before relaying the new surface on top.

They also removed two concrete aircraft stands and replaced 11 others.

The stands, known as ramps, are the areas of an airfield where aircraft are parked to be loaded, refuelled or boarded and, at RAF Fairford, are larger than usual to accommodate the size of aircraft.

In other changes to the base, the airfield ground lighting has been replaced.

A new environmentally sustainable LED system has been installed which is set to improve visibility for pilots.

Progress on the refurbishments was slower than originally hoped due to the pandemic but also because of the unearthing of a number of unrecorded and abandoned electrical and fuel systems dating back to the Second World War, which had to be removed.

The completion of the most recent works marks the end of a programme to replace all airfield pavement services at RAF Fairford which started with the resurfacing of the runway in the early 2000s.