RAF Lakenheath


ICAO Locator: EGUL

Coordinates: 52.408333,0.556667

Location: Lakenheath, Suffolk, U.K.

Airfield Diagram - diagram of airfield.
Two ‘hot cargo pads’ are indicated, P near the North Taxiway, and along Taxiway I. See ‘Hot Cargo Pads’ below
This page of the source document is dated 2007; the current (Jan 2023) version on MoD website is text only!?!?
Satellite View - satellite view of whole airfield.
It can be seen that taxiway I has new asphalt margins in parts, and surface markings indicating that aircraft should stay on the central concrete strip.

A larger, higher quality version (2304x2048 pixels, 3.9MB) is here.

Another version is here, annotated with letters as per Thunder and Lightnings guide, and the following numbers indicating notable features on the airfield:
  1. hot cargo pad P
  2. hot cargo pad W (formerly part of taxiway I)
  3. large transport apron on taxiway V
  4. tall open-frame radio tower
  5. open-frame tower with radar dish
Hot Cargo Pads - pad K and pad P (‘1’ on the annotated satellite view) are currently designated hot cargo pads, according to this diagram on p104 of this document.
During Cat 0 missions, the spare C-17 for Europe has been observed parked on pad P, as this satellite view from 2023-06-10 shows (photo from Arcgis Online).
There is a pad similar to K on the northern shelter loop, pad M-3.
Cargo Pad - satellite view of cargo apron for large transport aircraft on taxiway V.
This is marked out for three aircraft types (C-17A, B747-400, C-5A) and can handle two aircraft at the same time.
However, this parking area and taxiway V are stated to be closed in the MoD text document mentioned above (dated 2020-10-08).
A maximum resolution version (2560x2560 pixels, 5.4MB) is here

Satellite photos from Google Maps, except where stated