Lossie never made sense from a noise point of view. The noise in 'downtown' Lossiemouth during a GR4 takeoff on rwy 23 is deafening - because the town isn't very far away at all. By contrast Marham is actually in the middle of nowhere! Only the married patch gets any significant, long-lasting noise.
As for airspace, well the Marham GR4 wing seem to have coped alright with the training areas available. I seem to recall they did a pretty good job last year! For CAS training there are regular exercises at Sculthorpe, Stanta and Muckleburgh - all no more than 5 minutes' flying time away, and beyond that Salisbury Plain, Otterburn, etc are all in easy range with approx 1hr on task. The TMA over Stanta starts at FL205 so is not a factor (ignore the FL50 on the LFC, it's a long-standing "error" caused by AIDU oversimplifying the depiction of controlled airspace - look at the ERC instead, which is very clear).
Low flying isn't within the F35 CONOPS. If they did want to do it, from Marham a 25-minute transit opens up the Borders (including Spadeadam), the Lakes, Wales or the southwest. Usually at least one of those will be OK weather-wise. Transit time is rarely wasted when your primary weapons are delivered at medium level - 2 or 3 delivery profiles can be practised in each direction. However from Yeovs or Culdrose the northern options would be seriously fuel-limited.
If seeing the ground is the aim of the game for medium-level weapons training, then the British weather dictates that East is generally where you want to be! However, most of the time, operations in the oversea MDAs will be the staple diet. 'Pretend' GPS bombs and cruise missiles might just as well be aimed at the sea as anywhere else. Oil platforms provide nice objects to track with the targeting pod when that is required. If it's air-to-air combat you're after then basing near Coningsby, Lakenheath, Leeming, Leeuwarden, Volkel and Kleine Brogel gives you a huge range of potential opponents to take on in D323.
As regards "embarkation" sorties or Thursday wars - the FOST areas are only 20-25 minutes' flying time from Marham. Not practical from Lossie.
The decision between the 2 really is a no-brainer, before you even start to examine the potential logistic benefits from basing 15 miles away from the USAFE F-35 wing.
Last edited by Easy Street; 22nd Jul 2012 at 00:09.
Reason: Looked at an ERC!