We live next to UK’s biggest RAF base – we fear nuke attack & are terrified we’re first on Putin’s hitlist
A TINY English village could be top of Putin’s nuclear hitlist, locals fear.
Brize Norton is only a stone’s throw away from the largest station in the Royal Air Force.
Huge convoys of blacked-out lorries, police riot vans, ambulances and other trucks regularly rumble through, clogging up the village’s narrow main road.
Locals claim they’ve had guns pointed at them by cops, and even been forced to pull over to make room for the fleet of “deadly cargo”.
One video shows parents and kids on the school run having to stand aside as a convoy with blue flashing lights thunders through, shaking the walls of surrounding buildings and towering over homes just metres away.
The cargo, widely believed to contain “nuclear material”, is a key part of Britain’s Trident weapons programme.
The number of flights into the base – home to the US Air Force’s C-17 Globemaster – can vary from a handful to dozens every day, locals say.
They openly speak about living in fear of the fact that they are within a blast zone if Putin were to launch a strike.
Andrew Golding, 59, told The Sun: “It worries my wife (living next to the base), because of Mr Putin, that’s the only thing that worries her, we’re going to be first.
“I reassure her by saying ‘you won’t know anything about it’, but that’s all it can be: one is enough.
“If he decided to fire one here, that’s us gone, there’s better places to live from that point of view.”
Retirees Rob and Bettie Butler have lived in the area for 11 years.
Rob said: “If you’ve got fighters coming over, they make an awful lot of noise.
Brize Norton: The UK's largest RAF station
Some 6,000 people work at the base, home to the US Air Force’s C-17 Globemaster.
Control of the airfield, built in 1935, was transferred from the RAF to USAF in 1951 then handed back over a decade later.
It has been the base for RAF operations against the Taliban and Islamic State as well as the evacuation of Afghanistan.
In the five years up to 2016, nuclear weapons materials – thought to be the ingredients for Trident warheads – were flown between the US and UK 23 times, according to the MoD.
These are widely believed to have started or ended at Brize Norton.
One Cold War document from 1972 said the airbase was a “probable” target for Soviet nukes.
“We know bloody well if there is a war that’s [RAF Brize Norton] one of the first places they’ll hit.
“So you can just sit here, put your head between your legs and kiss your a**e goodbye.”
Bettie adds: “It can be worrying I don’t doubt that.”
Locals say the base works in secrecy, and are split on what’s inside the black lorries, with some saying it’s nuclear weapons and others speculating nuclear waste.
Rob says: “I think that’s where they unload them [nuclear weapons]… they go through this gate and go to a hangar where they unload them.
“It’s very hush-hush.”
Last year, Rob was caught driving when one of the convoys passed through.
“Police will point guns at you and tell you to stop, you don’t dare move… they”ll be at every junction to make sure nothing stops them.”
There are no pedestrian crossings for school or preschool children to use, say locals, creating a safety hazard.
Councillor Les Goble expressed concerns over the airbase making traffic worse through the village, as new developments are also adding to the traffic.
The 76-year-old said: “That’s a busy little hub there, it’s the centre of our village and it gets packed there.
“Have you noticed the narrowness of the pavements? That’s what concerns me.
“Four lorries went through the village this morning and they shouldn’t have done, they should not be coming through the village… there’s 38 listed buildings in our village.”
Les says the council removed pedestrian islands so the RAF could use a route to the north of the village.
“My question would be why don’t they [the convoys] use the designated route and not through the middle of our village?”
If he decided to fire one here, that’s us gone, there’s better places to live from that point of view.
Brize Norton resident Rob Butler
His partner, Wendy Way, the chairwoman of the council, said the base doesn’t convey when there are transport movements.
The 61-year-old has found communicating with the base difficult and has felt ignored when complaining about noise issues.
She said: “The only time I think the base would get in touch with us if there was an emergency incident of some sort.
“It’s all very under the radar, so to speak.”
But, both councillors agreed the retirement of Britain’s C-130 Hercules fleet in 2023 had improved the noise from the base a great deal.
RAF Brize Norton is used for repatriation flights – where airforce planes land transport the bodies of fallen British soldiers overseas.
Villagers have famously stood on the streets to pay tribute to the bodies of soldiers as they passed through.
Wendy also says that the street clogs up at the base when giant cargo planes arrive and plane watchers turn up to see them.
Both Wendy and Les feel there is no point in raising the traffic and safety issues with the RAF because they will “just be ignored until it suits the base”.
Wendy said: “It’s difficult getting on with the MoD.
“They don’t get involved with any planning outside the wire, but when they do it’s usually after the fact.”
Most residents think the answer to why the convoys move through the town is because the “weapons” are stored near the eastern gate and it’s a shorter route through the town than the base from the A40.
Nuclear advocacy group Nuke Watch’s Nigel Day once told the Banbury Guardian that “this is the most deadly cargo on our roads”.
He said: “These convoys travel regularly between Atomic Weapons Establishment, Burghfield in Berkshire – the nuclear bomb factory – and Royal Naval Armaments Depot, Coulport, next to the Trident submarine base at Faslane in Scotland.”
But, no villagers The Sun spoke to know for a fact.
Google satellite images show large buildings on the eastern side of the base which look like aircraft hangars but could be used for anything.
American nuclear weapons were previously stored at RAF Brize Norton when the US Air Force control were deployed there between 1951 and 1965, reports say.
Rob Butler claimed to have heard of one man who was shot in the leg when he tried to climb the fence into the base.
Nuke Watch say that despite the low risk of an accident, the consequences would be high because the convoys travel through populated areas.
“Local people around nuclear sites are informed about risks and given safety information explaining what to do in the event of an accident, and so people living near nuclear transport routes should be provided with similar information.
“The UK’s nuclear weapons programme is heavily dependent on the USA and flights to Brize Norton bring in nuclear materials which are needed from the US government. These are then transported onwards by road convoy.”
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said it is their longstanding policy to not comment on details of nuclear materials transport for national security reasons.
They added: “In all circumstances, routes for transport of defence nuclear materials are subject to a rigorous selection and regular reassessment process, taking into consideration the safety and security of the convoy and of the British public.”
RAF Brize Norton did not respond to a request for comment.