Flimsy fence protects air base set for Britain's new nuclear-armed jets
An airbase set to house the RAF's nuclear-armed jets is protected by a five-foot wooden fence.
The flimsy barrier is 300 metres from the runway at RAF Marham, Norfolk. Our revelation comes just weeks after protesters were arrested for causing £7million of damage to aircraft at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.
The fence at RAF Marham can be accessed by five gaps in a hedge in a farmer's field. We visited the spot this week and stood there for 30 minutes but no security guard came to check on us. The rest of the base is surrounded by 18-foot barbed-wire fences.
Last night Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former army colonel and nuclear weapons expert, said: 'It seems incongruous that at the base for our stealth fighters there is only a picket fence, which a small child could vault, as protection. When our new tactical nuclear bombers, the F-35As, arrive at RAF Marham, a wooden fence is almost encouraging terrorists to 'have a go'.'
RAF Marham is the home of 617 Squadron 'The Dambusters' who fly the F-35B Lightning multi-role stealth fighter. A month ago Keir Starmer announced the government was buying at least 12 American-made F-35A fighter-bombers that can carry nuclear weapons as well as conventional ones at an estimated cost of around £700million.
At a Nato summit in The Hague, the Prime Minister said the purchase was a 'response to a growing nuclear threat'. Downing Street said the move was 'the biggest strengthening of the UK's nuclear posture in a generation'. It is the first time the RAF will be able to carry nukes since the 1990s.
The move comes at a time of growing global insecurity – and as the PM and his European and Canadian allies scramble to convince Donald Trump they are serious about defending Europe, rather than relying on the US. Colonel de Bretton-Gordon added: 'I applaud the design to get a tactical nuclear deterrent but the protection of these aircraft is as important as the aircraft themselves'.
A government spokesperson said: ''We take security extremely seriously and operate a multi-layered approach to protect our sites, including fencing, patrols and CCTV monitoring. Following the incident at Brize Norton, we are urgently reviewing security and have implemented a series of enhanced security measures at all sites. After years of hollowing out and underfunding of the armed forces, the Strategic Defence Review concluded that we need to invest more, backed by the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War.'
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