Holbeach AWR is a place where you can bring your aircraft to blow up and shoot stuff…oooohhhhh yeahhh! We have a Chinook from RAF Odiham hitting the range!
It is a Ministry of Defence academic air weapons range (AWR) situated between Boston and King's Lynn in the civil parish of Gedney on The Wash, in Lincolnshire. Its location is stunningly and contrastingly tranquil, until of course, a squawk of 7002 from an aircraft entering the range.
It was originally associated with RAF Sutton Bridge, but in the 1950s was named Royal Air Force Holbeach before adopting its current name in the mid 2000s when control was passed to the Defence Training Estate.
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"Shown on aeronautical charts as Danger area EGD 307, it is also known as the Wash Weapons airspace. The range covers an area from Gedney Drove End to Dawsmere. It has a frontage of around 7km of marshland, and when the current range boundaries are taken into account, the range covers an area of some 42 square kilometres. The accommodation consists of a headquarters site, a control tower, and four bomb scoring towers or 'quadrants'. The site is open for use Monday to Thursday from 0900 - 1700hrs daily, with Friday being open from 0900 – 1200hrs. Opening times vary between 1st September and 30th April when the range is open for night flying on Tuesday and Thursdays, until 2200hrs local time.
The whole of the site can be observed by the public from the road which is a right of way. It should not need to be stated that to ignore warning signs and to enter the area while the range is open, is foolhardy in the least and in certain cases almost certainly deadly. If anything is amiss reporting it to the tower is safer and almost certainly will prompt a fast and effective response from properly qualified personnel, if required.
The range is used by RAF, USAF, and other European air forces for bombing and strafing practice, at all altitudes up to a maximum of 23000 ft. The range regularly sees visits from Tornado, Harrier, and Jaguar aircraft of the RAF. The USAF F15E’s of RAF Lakenheath are also frequent visitors, as were USAF A10’s detached to Lakenheath from Spangdahlem in Germany during 'Exercise Excalibur' in 2005. The range has also been visited by USAF B1 and B2 bombers in the recent past, the B2’s flying direct from the continental United States, delivering their practice weapons at Holbeach, and flying directly back to the United States, a round trip of some 20 hours.
Age doesn't disqualify aircraft from visiting the range either. During November 2004 a pair of the USAFs veteran, but highly capable, B52s from Edwards Air force Base in California visited Holbeach. Each making four passes at targets on the range, before they to returned non-stop to the continental United States.
The use of the range is not restricted to fast jet traffic, the range has also been used by both the RAF and the Army Air Corp crews to hone their skills in the use of door mounted machine guns, the RAF from Puma and Chinook Helicopters, and the Army Air Corp with the Lynx, which has also used the Armour defeating TOW (Tube launched, Optically sighted, Wire Guided) missile. The French air force also recently utilised the range with a Puma supporting Gazelle helicopters cannon firing on the range.
Aerobatics may seem, to the casual observer, to have little place at the weapons range, but the Red Arrows frequently deploy to Holbeach’s airspace, to practise their display over water, usually during March, prior to their departure to Cyprus to work up to full display qualification. During the work up to the 2006 display season, the range was also used by the 20(R) Sqn Harrier display pilot, Flt Lt Pete Keenlyside to hone his display, and subsequently receive his authorisation to perform in public." - Excerpt from [ Ссылка ]
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