Opened 18 May 1940 with grass runways, after surveys in 1937/38 and building had started in 1939. Became famous as the home of the Lyneham Transport Wing of C-130 Hercules tactical transports. Last mission flown in Jul 2011 and RAF handed back the site to the Ministry of Defence on 31 Dec 2012.
The UK Ministry of Defence was considering another rationalisation of Defence Engineering Training, after the failure of its centralisation plan for
MoD St Athan in S Wales. It began to announce the closure of the Army
SEAE at
Arborfield in 2004 (for 2008). It had still not got all the ducks lined up by 2010, when the St Athan centralisation plan began to unravel. SEAE Arborfield closed in Apr 2015 and its
Phase 1 move to Lyneham is likely to be the only one for the forseeable future, as neither the Royal Navy nor the RAF had bought in by Dec 2016, to the Lyneham centralisation.
In 2016, Prince Philip Barracks became the HQ of the REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) - and they have a fabulous
museum open to the public.
REME Museum , England 