Key Information
Where and when
Monday 14 - Saturday 26 April 2025
RAF Lakenheath, Brandon Road, Brandon, Suffolk IP27 9PN
What is it?
A two-week peace camp, protesting against the return of US nuclear weapons to Britain.
The camp will be entirely based on nonviolent direct action. It is organised by the Lakenheath Alliance for Peace (LAP) made up of 56 organisations, including XR Peace.
What is the problem?
RAF Lakenheath is in reality USAF Lakenheath (i.e. American, not British) and is the largest US airbase in Europe. Its Air Force units maintain combat-ready wings that are pledged to NATO.
USAF Lakenheath is a base used to deploy weapons and military aircraft to conflicts around the world, including Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Serbia, Libya, Syria, the Middle East and East Africa. Now with nuclear weapons coming back, the potential destruction deployed from this base is even more severe.
With Donald Trump back in the White House, the threats to humanity and all life on earth are real.
The arms industry is highly profitable and governments do not want to stop this lucrative business; our present economic system needs wars to survive. The UK Government, amongst others, continues to sell arms and provide resources to countries like Israel, ignoring the toll on human life, biodiversity, and rampant emissions.
Why is XRUK getting involved?
Militarism is one of the central pillars of the carbon intensive, exploitative, industrial system that is driving the climate and ecological crisis.
Climate change causes war and war causes climate change. Environmental destruction and biodiversity loss follow in the wake of war. About 5.5 - 6% of global carbon emissions are from military activity. 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. We cannot stop, or at least slow down, rapid climate and ecological breakdown without addressing militarism.
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.