This presentation was given on 8 September 2025 at the Old Print Works, 493-506 Moseley Rd, B12 9AH. It was part of a speaking tour organised by the Lakenheath Alliance for Peace and promoted by West Midlands CND.

The Lakenheath Alliance for Peace is a coalition of 63 groups all of whom are dedicated to stopping the deployment of US nuclear weapons at RAF Lakenheath. Despite being called an RAF base, Lakenheath is run by the USAirForce and only hosts US personnel, around 6,000 of them. It is the largest deployment of USAF personnel in the UK. This is why we talk about USAF not RAF Lakenheath. It is in East Anglia not far from Cambridge and Norwich.
In 2008, after a long and impactful direct action campaign led by local groups, the 110 US nuclear bombs then stored at Lakenheath were removed. But now US nuclear bombs have started returning. As soon as we heard they might be coming back we organised our resistance by launching the Lakenheath Alliance for Peace in March 2024.
The UK’s ‘special’ relationship with the US means the UK government just do whatever the US tells them to do with no democratic oversight. The US are in total control of these military bases that are not for our ‘defence’ but for ‘offence’.
It was in July this year that the US nuclear bombs started arriving. It was also in July at the 2025 Royal International Air Tattoo that a badge was revealed for the F-35A squadron based at Lakenheath, capable of carrying the nuclear bombs. On one side is an image of a nuclear explosion and on the other the motto ‘Prepare To Meet Thy Maker’.
Recently, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg insisted that NATO must be transparent about its nuclear arsenal and show it to the world to send a direct message to its foes, Russia and China. He encouraged member states to take their nuclear missiles out of storage and place them on standby. Allies now have 500,000 troops at NATO’s command at high readiness across all domains – a scale not seen in decades.
We are probably nearer to a nuclear exchange, by design or accident, than at any time in the past.
It is insane to allow US nuclear weapons to come back into the UK. We should, instead, be dismantling our own weapons of mass destruction and cooperating with every single nation on this fragile planet to stop runaway climate change and biodiversity loss. The World Meteorological Organization confirmed that 2024 was the hottest year on record. Global greenhouse gases are still increasing and our corrupt governments, in hock to oligarchs and trans-national corporations and still spouting the outdated and dangerous growth economic ideology, means that arctic ice is disappearing faster, fresh water is getting scarcer and the droughts, floods and other catastrophic ‘extreme’ climate events are impacting the environment, health and food production all over the world. We are at a major crisis point for all life forms on this fragile planet that humans are destroying.
The jet fighters at Lakenheath are F35-As, and they burn 22 gallons of jet fuel per minute, when flying in their least fuel-intensive mode. When doing high-powered manoeuvres, they use far more. When in flight, the F35s need to fill their fuel tanks. But, before landing on an aircraft carrier, they have to jettison most of the remaining fuel in the tanks by dumping it in the sea. The F-35s are specifically designed to deliver satellite-guided B61-12 nuclear bombs, or Lockheed Martin ‘wind-corrected’ cluster bombs. Both weapon systems are illegal under international humanitarian law.
Militarism is one of the central pillars of the carbon intensive exploitative extractive industrial system that is driving the climate crisis. Climate change causes war and war causes climate change.
Climate change is already a significant cause of conflicts and is a key factor driving the refugee crisis, both from food shortages and climate induced conflicts. As the climate crisis gains pace there will be increasing tension and more wars unless we can stop them. Getting to net zero will require a radical social transformation including ending militarism.
The Pentagon admits that global warming is a national security threat. Yet, the US military is the single largest user of fossil fuels on the planet. We all have to recognise that the military bears a huge responsibility for the climate chaos we are experiencing. The developments at Lakenheath are actively promoting the expansion of the fossil fuel industry, accelerating the nuclear arms race and turning the UK and Europe into a nuclear front line, even more dangerous than the Cold War was.
But it is not just the nuclear weapons that we need to be aware of. Lakenheath’s conventional weaponry is also ominous. Lakenheath is home to the 48th Fighter Wing that deploys 40 F-15E and 42 F-35A fighter/bombers. It is also frequently used by other fighter planes from units which are being deployed to Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Lakenheath prides itself on being able to deploy extremely rapidly. For instance, after the Hamas attacks on the 7 October 2023, F-15Es from Lakenheath landed at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan on the 13 October to bolster US presence in the region.
Looking back you can see how integral Lakenheath is in recent and current wars. These bases are not for our ‘defence’ at all. They are fuelling the ‘forever wars’ that keep control of scarce resources for the richer minority world.
After Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 planes from Lakenheath were involved in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm flying 2,500 combat sorties and dropping 7.3 million pounds of bombs. They were involved in imposing the no-fly zone over Iraq in the 1990s and the bombing of Serbia. In 1996 planes from Lakenheath were involved in the bombing of Libya.
They were deployed multiple times in Afghanistan and Iraq, and again during the 2011 war in Libya. They were also involved in the campaign in Syria, and in 2018 flew over 2,000 missions while dropping more than 500 bombs. In 2021 they shot down an ‘Iranian’ drone in Syria and in 2023 they bombed Syria in response to attacks on US bases in the area.
More recently (April 2024) Lakenheath has been involved in countering the Iranian strike on Israel. And currently, horrifyingly, are giving extensive military support to the Israeli Zionist state in its genocidal attacks on Palestinian civilians in Gaza. As well as joint exercises with NATO, planes from Lakenheath regularly do joint exercises with the Israeli and Saudi Arabian air forces.
The UK is an integral part of the US Empire. In case you were unaware, the USA has around 800 military bases in 80 countries and has deployed its forces to surround both Russia and China and the UK has 145 military bases in 42 countries which it uses to support the US Empire – for example the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus that is used extensively in the genocide of Gaza. To put this in context, Russia has only 21 in 9 countries and China 2 in 2 countries.
Part of the problem that we face is the way in which ‘national security’ is defined by the political establishment which include corporate business interests which are rooted in the shareholder capitalist system. The very system that makes its money from the continued pillage of natural resources and the war industry.
Military force is regarded as the primary response to perceived security threats. If a country want to take control of their own natural resources or to look after their own people by feeding them and providing social security, this is seen as a threat by the national security corporate complex.
The arms industry is highly profitable and governments don’t want to stop this lucrative business. So even though Israel, for instance, is breaking international law with its genocidal attacks on Gaza, our Government continues to sell arms and provide resources to Israel. International law is thus further undermined and weakened because of this support for military solutions that actually require us to instead work for common security for all through diplomacy and a respect for all peoples rights to live in peace and security.
I think all of us are feeling frustrated and horrified at the state of the world and our own government’s collusion. But we must not be daunted. We have to remember what consistent people’s resistance and nonviolent action has done in the past. To give one small example, the peace movement helped rid us of cruise missiles, turfed the military out of Greenham Common, and helped end the cold war, as well as keeping nuclear weapons out of Lakenheath for almost 25 years.
We can do this again and get rid of our own UK weapons of mass destruction. We can join with climate activists, environmentalists, anti-racist and human rights activists and other social change movements and demand the changes we need for a humane and peaceful world.
It is exciting to know that so many movements are now cooperating and working together. We cannot continue to work alone in our single issue campaigns. The problems, and the structural changes we need, are all interconnected. We are all interconnected.
Despite all the legislation that the government have put in place to try and stop us protesting in any effective and direct manner, we cannot allow this to prevent us from acting nonviolently to stop preparations for mass destruction. As compassionate and caring global citizens we must act in self-defence to protect ourselves and our planet.
Thus I urge all of you to find your strength, love and determination and get involved in actions to disrupt all preparations for mass murder and war crimes.
Lakenheath Alliance for Peace is organising monthly vigils at Lakenheath as well as another international peace camp for Easter next year. We are looking for people to form affinity groups and to train nonviolently to enter these bases and occupy runways, do more war crimes inspections and nonviolently disrupt the, war at any price, actions of this US airbase.
The important thing to remember is that we, ordinary people, with little power or status, nevertheless actually have a great deal of power when we come together and act together; when we join the single issues and concerns of our various organisations, into a co-ordinated struggle for structural, cultural and economic change.
Protest and civil resistance is now much harder as the clamp downs on our rights have tightened. This is why we need to form close support networks, prepare for our actions, and not to lose heart. It is by our own actions that the much needed changes will take place. We cannot wait for governments and ‘leaders’ to do it, we have to do it ourselves. Step by step.
Please look at our website and be inspired by the films of our actions and together we will create a safer, non-racist, egalitarian, and caring world.