RAF Holbeach

RAF Holbeach is a Royal Air Force bombing range situated between Boston and Kings Lynn on The Wash, in Lincolnshire, eastern England. It is 'parented', or looked after by RAF Marham, who use it for their aircraft.

The range provides facilities for RAF and other NATO aircraft to practice dropping bombs and firing their cannon. Targets include several old trawlers which have been beached on the sands of The Wash for this purpose. Towers parallel to the target line are manned and allow the fall of the weapons to be triangulated.

RAF Holbeach also has facilities for scoring strafing runs. Originally using the DelMar Acoustiscore system, this was superseded in 1995 by the MS Instruments PLC Strafe Scoring System. The strafing target is a three-metre square net with an orange bullseye made by weaving plastic strips through the chicken-wire net. The Strafe Scoring target detects the x-y position of the projectile from the acoustic signature of the supersonic shockwave.This result is sent by radio to the control tower, where it is displayed to the Air Traffic Controller for relaying to the pilot.The range also has semi-automatic bomb and rocket scoring systems provided by MS Instruments PLC.

External links

* [http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafmarham/aboutus/holbeach.cfm Royal Air Force Holbeach official website]
* [http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/spotting/holbeach.html Thunder & Lightnings - aviation enthusiasts, including airfield viewing guides]
* [http://raf-lincolnshire.info/holbeach/holbeach.htm RAF in Lincolnshire - an unofficial enthusiast website]
* [http://www.rafmarham.co.uk/organisation/holbeach/index.htm RAF Marham official website - detail of the site with photos]

News items

* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/10/24/utornado.xml Tornado crashes on the range on October 24th 2006]