Files Reveal Mystery Drones Breached Airspace Around RAF Marham, Britain’s Front‑Line F‑35 Base
Photo by Lincoln Holley on Unsplash
Written by Christopher Sharp - 30 July 2025
Two newly released Freedom of Information responses reveal that the wave of suspected drone incursions hitting U.S. bases across England in November and December 2024 also reached RAF Marham in Norfolk - the Royal Air Force’s principal home for its F‑35 Lightning jets.
On 26 November 2024, a guard at RAF Marham rang the base emergency line to say they could see a drone‑like light just beyond the runway.
Controllers in the tower could see nothing from the visual control room windows, the supervisor wrote, ‘but there were possible contacts spotted in the overhead and around the ‘01’ threshold south of the runway in use.’
Two F‑35s based at RAF Marham were circling above with only about fifteen minutes of fuel left, so the duty supervisor checked with nearby RAF Lakenheath and RAF Coningsby, situated in Lincolnshire, in case the jets had to divert.
Both bases agreed, but Lakenheath soon called back to say it too was experiencing possible drone activity.
Marham’s controllers brought the fighters straight in to land, steering them past the last reported drone position, and both aircraft touched down safely.
The Marham alert was part of a wider scare.
From 20 November into early December 2024, U.S.-run RAF Lakenheath, Mildenhall, Feltwell, Fairford logged dozens of similar drone sightings, serious enough to trigger two UK government emergency COBRA meetings in Whitehall and the rapid deployment of extra troops and counter‑drone kit to their perimeters.
One source with insight into the incidents over RAF Lakenheath, which may now store nuclear bombs, told the Daily Mail in December 2024 that the drones were flying in with no lights. When they were close to the site, they were turning on the lights, going, "here I am," and as far as I know not one piece of our equipment could bring it down or spot it,' the source said.
Liberation Times interviewed Joe Hill, a resident of Narborough - the village just north of RAF Marham - who recalls a red‑and‑blue light pulsing in the sky near the base on the night of 26 November - a Tuesday.
Speaking to Liberation Times, Hill recalled:
“I spend most of my time indoors because of a medical condition, and that month was bitterly cold. A YouTube clip mentioned unknown objects over Lakenheath, and we could hear jets roaring overhead.
“My partner and I stepped outside and saw one orb-shaped object directly above the base - too high to gauge its size - pulsing red and blue. I wanted to stay and watch, but the cold and my nerve pain drove us back in after about twenty minutes. The thing was moving, just very slowly.”
That night, Hill captured the mystery object on video through his phone and noticed a helicopter along with two jets circling nearby.
Responding to a question posed regarding a potential incident over RAF Marham in November 2024, an RAF source at the time told Liberation Times:
‘The Ministry of Defence continues to take this matter seriously and continues to work closely with United States Visiting Forces, Police, and other partners to respond to recent events.
‘However, we will not be offering a running commentary on possible drone sightings, operational security matters or routine training flights around our airbases.’
Another report from RAF Marham surfaced on 18 December 2024. Two F‑35s from 617 Squadron - based at Marham - were training in a reserved airspace zone when the pilots spotted three unidentified drones flying between 18,000 and 23,000 feet near Norwich and the Norfolk coast.
They radioed the control centre with the drones’ positions, steered clear to avoid any clash, and then carried on with their mission.
Both reports relating to drone activity from RAF Marham were obtained by X user and Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) researcher, ‘RGH’.
Since the November‑to‑December 2024 incursions, neither the Ministry of Defence nor the U.S. Air Force (operating from RAF Lakenheath and other bases impacted) has identified who flew the drones.
Soon after sightings over the UK, mystery craft appeared over U.S. bases from New Jersey to Ohio and above Ramstein Air Base in Germany, forcing temporary airspace closures.
Back in the UK, the lack of answers has sharpened worries about perimeter security, especially after Palestine Action activists slipped into RAF Brize Norton in June 2025 and daubed aircraft with paint.
Liberation Times has also obtained an eyewitness account of suspected drone activity over the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Aldermaston, Berkshire, on 7 January 2025.
AWE designs, builds and maintains the UK’s nuclear warheads - work that underpins the UK’s deterrent - so any unauthorised aircraft in its airspace is treated as a serious security threat.
The incidents raise fresh doubts about the UK’s ability to protect front‑line jets and even nuclear sites from small, untraceable aircraft, especially following an investigative report regarding potential Russian involvement relating to the drone incursions.
