Latest news with #RAFLakenheath
Telegraph
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Topless trans protesters claim climate change hits them hardest
Suffolk Police said that three women were arrested on suspicion of exposure and going equipped. The force added that all three were taken to Bury St Edmunds police investigation centre to be questioned. The demonstration, organised by Extinction Rebellion, was held on the penultimate day of a two-week 'peace camp' at Lakenheath to protest against the potential return of nuclear weapons to the military base. About 60 groups from across Britain have taken part in the camp and there are plans for a 'mass blockade' on Saturday. Although RAF Lakenheath is a British military base, it is used solely by US troops. Chrissy Jenkins, a carer from Cwmbran, said she took part in Friday's protest – which was entitled 'Can't Bare the Harm' by organisers – because she could not 'stand by and watch the military and fossil fuel industrial complex put profits over people'. Tez Burns, a protester from Swansea, said she joined the demonstration because the manufacture of weapons led to increased carbon emissions. 'People are defenceless' 'I'm topless because I want to show how vulnerable I – a non-binary assigned female at birth person – am right now in this present moment,' she said. 'I'm topless so you can witness my vulnerability and relate. 'How would you feel? People are defenceless right now, because we insist on business as usual, when we need to 'break the chain'.' Trans activists are still coming to terms with last week's Supreme Court judgment which ruled that transgender women are not legally women. The court decision, which reaffirmed that there are only two sexes, male or female, has blindsided activists who have fought for years for access to female lavatories, changing rooms and spaces. Gender-critical activists such as JK Rowling, the Harry Potter author, welcomed the ruling, which followed a years-long legal battle between campaign group For Women Scotland and the Scottish Government over the definition of a woman.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Locals call for transparency after nuclear drill
People living near a US airbase earmarked to house nuclear weapons say they are being left in the dark about what would happen in the event of a radiation alert. It comes after a drill simulating an accident involving such material was held, with personnel from RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk taking part. Nick Timothy, Conservative MP for West Suffolk, said while the US military was "welcome", there needed to be "transparency as far as possible on issues like this exercise". A Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesman said: "Exercise Diamond Dragon demonstrated our preparedness to respond to any incident, no matter how unlikely". The exercise was conducted at nearby RAF Honington. A US Air Force (USAF) spokesman said: "Airmen from the USAF participated in a small-scale, joint emergency response exercise from September 23-25, 2024. "The purpose was to train and evaluate combined emergency response procedures in support of military operations and accidents". The last exercise was held in 2015, after which a report into what lessons had been learned was published. The Suffolk Resilience Forum, which leads on emergency planning in the county, confirmed the scenario in both instances was a simulated crash in the UK of a US aircraft carrying "defence nuclear materials". Lakenheath Parish Council chairman Gerald Kelly said he had been told informally about the latest drill. He said the area had an emergency plan, but added: "There is nothing in there about this sort of incident." The MoD should inform residents "what it wants us to do" if the event of an incident, he said. Mr Kelly called for a siren system to be installed and for the local community to be involved in any future exercises. Last year it emerged RAF Lakenheath was preparing facilities to house and guard nuclear bombs, 15 years after they were removed from the site. The F-35A Lightning II squadron at the base is now certified to carry the B61-12 thermonuclear munition. The UK and Nato have a long-standing policy to neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons at a given location. The Defence Nuclear Organisation, which oversees "all defence nuclear business, excluding operations", published guidance in 2021 detailing what local authorities should do in case of a nuclear weapons emergency. One section advised members of the public situated 5km (three miles) downwind of an incident should be evacuated in a 45-degree arc, centred on the wind direction. Parents would also be advised not to try to collect children from school unless told otherwise. "The school authorities will look after them," the document stated. Lakenheath villagers said they did not know about this advice or Exercise Diamond Dragon. David Rolph, who has lived locally for 20 years, said: "I think the local people should be well aware of what we can do if something happened on-base and there isn't any information. There is no noticeboard saying what to do." He endorsed the idea of a siren warning system. Lily Brown, 33, a barber who previously worked at RAF Lakenheath, was not keen on the idea of sirens being installed. "I'd rather not know what's coming," she said. Sally Hunt confirmed she also had received no nuclear safety information, despite living close to Lakenheath for two decades. "If they are going to have nuclear weapons up there, I think we should be aware of it and know that there are safety measures in place," she added. Timothy, who has represented the constituency since last July, said: "We know that exercises like this take place across government, across the military and public services for all sorts of different possibilities all the time." A spokesman for the Suffolk Resilience Forum said it would publish a report on the latest exercise. They added: "This happened in West Suffolk because of the obvious availability and proximity of a suitable location and relevant military personnel. "This exercise is relevant to anywhere in the UK and does not represent a specific threat to our area." Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X. Two arrested at peace protest outside US airbase Police helicopter 'near miss' during drone alert Ministers urged to clarify nuclear deployment Ministry of Defence RAF Lakenheath Suffolk Resilience Forum
BBC News
22-04-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Locals call for transparency after RAF Lakenheath nuclear drill
People living near a US airbase earmarked to house nuclear weapons say they are being left in the dark about what would happen in the event of a radiation comes after a drill simulating an accident involving such material was held, with personnel from RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk taking Timothy, Conservative MP for West Suffolk, said while the US military was "welcome", there needed to be "transparency as far as possible on issues like this exercise".A Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesman said: "Exercise Diamond Dragon demonstrated our preparedness to respond to any incident, no matter how unlikely". The exercise was conducted at nearby RAF Honington. A US Air Force (USAF) spokesman said: "Airmen from the USAF participated in a small-scale, joint emergency response exercise from September 23-25, 2024."The purpose was to train and evaluate combined emergency response procedures in support of military operations and accidents".The last exercise was held in 2015, after which a report into what lessons had been learned was published. The Suffolk Resilience Forum, which leads on emergency planning in the county, confirmed the scenario in both instances was a simulated crash in the UK of a US aircraft carrying "defence nuclear materials".Lakenheath Parish Council chairman Gerald Kelly said he had been told informally about the latest said the area had an emergency plan, but added: "There is nothing in there about this sort of incident."The MoD should inform residents "what it wants us to do" if the event of an incident, he Kelly called for a siren system to be installed and for the local community to be involved in any future exercises. Last year it emerged RAF Lakenheath was preparing facilities to house and guard nuclear bombs, 15 years after they were removed from the F-35A Lightning II squadron at the base is now certified to carry the B61-12 thermonuclear UK and Nato have a long-standing policy to neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons at a given location. The Defence Nuclear Organisation, which oversees "all defence nuclear business, excluding operations", published guidance in 2021 detailing what local authorities should do in case of a nuclear weapons section advised members of the public situated 5km (three miles) downwind of an incident should be evacuated in a 45-degree arc, centred on the wind would also be advised not to try to collect children from school unless told otherwise."The school authorities will look after them," the document stated. Lakenheath villagers said they did not know about this advice or Exercise Diamond Rolph, who has lived locally for 20 years, said: "I think the local people should be well aware of what we can do if something happened on-base and there isn't any information. There is no noticeboard saying what to do."He endorsed the idea of a siren warning system. Lily Brown, 33, a barber who previously worked at RAF Lakenheath, was not keen on the idea of sirens being installed. "I'd rather not know what's coming," she Hunt confirmed she also had received no nuclear safety information, despite living close to Lakenheath for two decades."If they are going to have nuclear weapons up there, I think we should be aware of it and know that there are safety measures in place," she added. Timothy, who has represented the constituency since last July, said: "We know that exercises like this take place across government, across the military and public services for all sorts of different possibilities all the time." A spokesman for the Suffolk Resilience Forum said it would publish a report on the latest added: "This happened in West Suffolk because of the obvious availability and proximity of a suitable location and relevant military personnel."This exercise is relevant to anywhere in the UK and does not represent a specific threat to our area." Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
04-04-2025
- BBC News
Police helicopter had 'near miss with drone' near Lakenheath
A police helicopter was forced to abandon a mission when the pilot reported coming dangerously close to a chopper had been sent to assist at RAF Lakenheath, in Suffolk, following reports of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the data indicated the aircraft climbed steeply and made a series of sharp turns while over the nearby town of Newmarket in November. The National Police Air Service (NPAS), which operates the Airbus H135, would not comment as the incident was still under investigation. However, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to police revealed the helicopter withdrew "due to a drone coming close to them". NPAS confirmed that the helicopter, understood to have the registration G-POLJ, had been sent to the area on 22 November following reports of drone US Air Force said a number of unmanned aerial systems had been spotted in the vicinity of RAF Lakenheath, RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, RAF Feltwell in Norfolk and RAF Fairford in has video footage of the incident but would not release it on national security grounds, following a series of FOI requests. What is known as an Airprox notification was sent following the are submitted when a pilot or air traffic personnel identify a near miss in which the safety of the aircraft involved may have been compromised. 'Emergency evasive action' The near miss incident was detailed in an FOI request to Norfolk and Suffolk Police, made by Stuart disclosed a log entry which stated: "NPAS is withdrawing due to a drone coming close to them."The logs contained 35 notifications related to drone sightings reported to local police between 22 and 27 contained reports, mostly from members of the public, which described drones making three loops of an undisclosed perimeter and another doing loops around Feltwell. Sightings were also reported at Bodney Camp, another military installation, and were seen moving in the direction of Sandringham and a nearby Center Parcs. One log entry also described a man who "grabbed the drone, got back in the car and roared off at speed", although the date when this happened was final entry stated: "Informant said that he has spoken to ex-USAF service men, and he now believes that a UFO/spaceship was captured by the US military during the early 80s."Mr Onyeche, who said his work was aviation related, told the BBC the incident "raises obvious safety concerns for the public on the ground from the risk of collision above". He added: "The public are being kept in the dark about what happened, so we are being left to join dots and speculate."Suffolk Police referred the BBC's inquiries to the Ministry of Defence. Scepticism Ian Hudson, a drone commentator and analyst, extracted data from the flight tracking website ADS-B Exchange. He said it showed G-POLJ taking off from North Weald Airfield, in Essex, at 22:13 GMT on 22 November. It arrived at RAF Lakenheath 23 minutes later before turning southwest towards Newmarket. The chopper then climbed steeply before making a series of BBC was able to reproduce his flight path "appears to be a search or pursuit over Newmarket", and there were reservations within the drone community about the presence of drones in the skies above the airbases, Mr Hudson said."There is scepticism about drone sightings at night as often there are mis-identifications," he added. Investigations into the sightings were led by the Ministry of Defence Police. An MOD spokesperson said: "We take threats seriously and maintain robust measures at defence sites."In February, the i-Paper published an analysis of open source data which indicated three people, linked to Russian military intelligence, had been in the area during and leading up to the BBC has not been able to verify these reports. Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Can Europe defend itself from Russia?
Donald Trump's new defence secretary ripped up decades of foreign policy when he told European allies they must now look after their own defence. Pete Hegseth said that the United States would no longer 'tolerate an imbalanced relationship' with its allies and called on Nato members to spend much more on defence. But after more than 75 years of sheltering behind the US, can Europe defend itself? Mr Hegseth said that the US was not 'primarily focused on the security of Europe' and the Continent must more than double defence spending. European countries must take over providing the majority of aid to Ukraine, and underwrite security guarantees to Kyiv that would contain a belligerent Russia following any peace deal. He said: 'Safeguarding European security must be an imperative for European members of Nato. 'As part of this, Europe must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine.' An earlier draft of his speech suggested he had wanted to go further and declare the US was no longer 'the primary guarantor of security in Europe'. After years of frustration in Washington that Europe is freeloading, his comments have increased fears that Mr Trump will now step back from the Continent, leaving it to defend itself. American military and economic might has guaranteed European security for more than 75 years. The Nato alliance promises that anyone who attacks its European members will find themselves having to answer to the most powerful military colossus the world has ever seen. Such guaranteed protection has allowed European nations to neglect their own security, confident that Washington has their back. This US protection was at its height during the Cold War, but it is still enormous and the US dominates Nato, which is always led by an American officer. Overall, the US has more than 100,000 military personnel deployed in Europe and has at least 25 significant bases, such as RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall in the UK. That footprint is backed by the rest of the US military, with its 1.3 million active-duty personnel and 800,000 reservists. The US military budget is by far the biggest in the world. It accounts for nearly 40 per cent of all worldwide military spending and is more than three times as much as its closest rival, China. The US is so dominant that other nations have naturally fallen in behind its lead. No single nation is powerful enough to fill that gap and take on the responsibility for leading Europe's defence, so strategic decisions will have to be taken by a group of European peers such as Britain, France and Germany. They have very different priorities and ideas, and there is great potential for squabbling. No other military can fight at scale in the way in which the US can. Sheltered by American protection since the end of the Cold War, several European militaries have diminished into what defence analysts have dismissively called 'bonsai armies'. Greatly pruned, they are designed for small, short campaigns rather than major conflicts. They may have a wide range of capabilities, but they are shallow and cannot keep them up for long. They would quickly founder under the scale of casualties, ammunition use or equipment losses seen on Ukraine's battlefields, for example. Mass and numbers are not all that the US provides. Nato is reliant on US military know-how, equipment and expertise to underpin its forces and knit them into a coherent unit. These so-called enablers range from intelligence and logistics, to surveillance and early warning. In practice, that might mean anything from military satellites to transport aircraft and refuelling tankers to airborne surveillance planes and drones. In Nato's Afghanistan mission, for example, European countries had to rely heavily on the US for supplies, hospitals, transport and intelligence. Not at the moment. 'Some of these things can be fixed, but it takes a lot of money and a lot of time and Europeans are out of both,' says Ed Arnold, a senior research fellow for European security at the Royal United Services Institute. Mr Hegseth wants European nations to raise their defence spending, from the Nato benchmark of 2 per cent of GDP up to 5 per cent. Some of this is happening, European leaders insist. Nato spending by non-US members rose by a fifth in 2024, the alliance said last week. Nato's eastern members who feel particularly threatened by Russia, such as the Baltic states and Poland, are rearming. Warsaw is spending more than 4 per cent of GDP on defence. Yet money is not enough without motivation and a clear strategic direction. In 2022, Germany announced a one-off £83 billion fund to try to upgrade its decrepit forces. Little improvement has happened since. Britain and France have their own nuclear arsenals, and under Nato weapons sharing, the US has provided nuclear weapons for Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey to deploy and store. Europe has also been protected under the US's wider nuclear umbrella. If the US posture in Europe alters, then clarifying what will happen to the nuclear deterrent will be a priority. But experts do not believe nuclear policy will change. The Trump administration might have a reputation for making threats to shake up a situation, or a negotiation, and then backing away, but none of Mr Hegseth's comments should surprise European leaders. They would be unwise to think this was a bluff, said Mr Arnold. 'I think this is it this time. I thought Hegseth's words were clear and unambiguous,' he said. Washington has been frustrated at picking up Europe's security tab for years. Barack Obama also complained that a complacent Europe was not pulling its weight. As far back as the Libyan campaign in 2011, Washington said it was high time Europe took the lead on its own doorstep. The question is what would European leadership for defence of the Continent look like? Would the US leave, scale back or just take a back seat? Mr Trump is reported to have already told European leaders he wants to withdraw 20,000 troops, though Mr Hegseth has been more conciliatory. 'We would be remiss in not reviewing force posture everywhere, but it would be the wrong planning assumption to say America's abandoning something or America's leaving,' Mr Hegseth said this week. There may also be plenty of strategic reasons for the US to still keep bases and forces on the Continent. Bases in northern Europe could become important for competition with Russia and China in the Arctic. But Europe needed to be much better at making its case, said Mr Arnold. He said: 'I don't think this is the US out of Europe, but the Europeans need to do more than express just shock and horror.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
