Ceremony marks step towards F-35 arrival at RAF Marham

The steelwork on the facilities being built at RAF Marham in Norfolk has now been completed on time. This has been marked with a ‘Golden Bolt’ ceremony involving the on base team behind the work.

BAE Systems is leading the construction of a maintenance and finish facility, a logistics operations centre and an integrated training centre with  the work scheduled to be completed in early 2018 to support the operation of the first aircraft squadron later that year.

Steve Worsnip, F-35 Support Director, said: “This milestone is another major step in preparation for the arrival of the UK’s first F-35 aircraft.

“Delivering this stage of the contract further underlines our company’s credentials in providing infrastructure for the UK’s military aircraft operations.

“We will continue to work hard in order to complete the facilities in time to support our UK customer.”

Our team on base is now working alongside our construction partner, Balfour Beatty, towards structural completion of the buildings which is scheduled for Spring 2017.

In April 2016, BAE Systems was awarded a £118m contract by Lockheed Martin – the prime contractor of the F-35 aircraft programme – to build the engineering and training facilities.