RAF Marham was very proud to start the New Year with 7 individuals and 4 teams featuring on the New Years Honours list as recognition for their exceptional performances in 2024. Personnel returned to their duties after the festive break with noticeable focus and momentum due to the next major event in many people’s calendars being the deployment to the aircraft carrier. Reflecting the purposeful mood is a new 180kg aluminium statue of a bull which is positioned just inside the entrance of the base on the right hand side and lit up by blue lights at night. The blue bull has featured on the RAF Marham Station crest since 1957 when it was adopted as the symbol of aggressive deterrence during a time when the Blue Danube atomic bomb was one of the weapons assigned to the Victor Valiant bombers based here. Our treasured Tornado aircraft gate guard still has pride of place on the other side of the road but the bull, which was a gift from the Warrant Officer and Seniors Mess to the Station, is a daily reminder to be proud of our history and to be prepared to stand strong against future adversaries.
The F-35 Air Wing have been training, flying and engineering to ensure the jets and personnel are as prepared as possible for the deployment (Carrier Strike Group 25). As part of this they have participated in Exercise Point Blank – a large force exercise that took place over the North Sea and involved UK and US warplanes working together practicing warfighting against a challenging enemy. During this exercise interoperability between our countries went to the next level as UK F-35B jets from Marham landed at Lakenheath (where the US F-35A and F-15 E Strike Eagle jets are based), and visa-versa to perform engines running refuelling, known as ‘hot-pitting’. This was the first time this has ever happened and is a great example of how Marham is enhancing its Agile Combat Employment (ACE) in order ‘to be able to operate with other NATO partners to enhance the resilience and survivability of our allied air operations’.