[2] In 1940, the Air Ministry selected Lakenheath as an alternative for nearby RAF Mildenhall and used it as a decoy airfield.

[5] One Stirling pilot, Flight Sergeant Rawdon Middleton, was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for valour on the night of 28–29 November 1942, when despite serious face wounds and loss of blood from shell-fire during a raid on the Fiat works at Turin in Italy, he brought the damaged aircraft back towards southern England.

[7] It conducted mine laying operations at sea before moving to RAF North Creake in Norfolk on 1 May 1944.

In November, President Harry S. Truman ordered Strategic Air Command (SAC) B-29 Superfortress bombers to Europe.

The Central Intelligence Agency unit did not remain long, moving to Wiesbaden Air Base, West Germany in June 1956.

[10] On 10 October 1956, a United States Navy Douglas R6D-1 Liftmaster disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean after departure from RAF Lakenheath for a flight to Lajes Field in the Azores.

The aircraft was on a Military Air Transport Service flight carrying 50 members of the 307th Bombardment Wing, on their way home to the United States after a temporary duty assignment and a U.S. Navy crew of nine.

[11][12][13][14] Following French president Charles de Gaulle's insistence in 1959 that all non-French nuclear-capable forces should be withdrawn from his country, the USAF began a redeployment of its North American F-100-equipped units from France.

[16][17] Beginning in late 1971, the 48th TFW started its conversion to the McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II, receiving aircraft that had previously served in Vietnam, with all squadrons now marked with the new 'LN' tailcode.

[18] After the US desegregated the military in 1948, a little community of mixed-race children, whose mothers were British and whose fathers were black American servicemembers based at Lakenheath, formed in Norwich.

[19] Vanessa Baird, whose father was a black GI based in Lakenheath airfield and whose mother was a Liverpudlian, was born in April 1958.

The pilot successfully ejected and was shortly recovered back to Lakenheath on board a Pave Hawk.

[26] A U.S. Marine Corps Boeing F/A-18 Hornet of VMFA-232 "Red Devils" from MCAS Miramar, California, crashed after taking off from RAF Lakenheath on 21 October 2015.

[28] On 15 June 2020, an F-15C belonging to the 493d Fighter Squadron crashed during a training flight in the North Sea, 74 nautical miles east of Scarborough at about 54°21′00″N 001°40′00″E / 54.35000°N 1.66667°E / 54.35000; 1.66667.

[29][30] In January 2015, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that from 2020, Lakenheath would become home to 54 of the US Air Force's Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II multi-role fighters.

[36] As of 2018, the main new operational buildings being developed as part of the F-35 project were as follows: a two six-bay maintenance hangars – Space for service, maintenance, storage, and staff support facilities (to be known as Hangars 4-1 and 4–2), hangar 6 (Consolidated Parts Store) – Single-storey extension to the southern side of Hangar 6, including offices and warehouses and the storage of aircraft equipment and parts., a dual squadron operations/aircraft maintenance unit (a three-storey building to provide combined facilities for two squadrons comprising Squadron Operations and Aircraft Maintenance Unit (AMU) facilities, including mission planning, administration space in the operations section and offices to manage the maintenance of aircraft and storage space), a corrosion control and wash rack facility – Comprising single-storey hangar to maintain aircraft including a paint and sanding booth and wash rack, a Flight simulator facility ( a single-storey building to accommodate six F-35A flight simulators, administration, records, classrooms, brief/debrief rooms, and storage space, a field training detachment facility (a three-storey building to provide F-35A maintenance, including classrooms and administration rooms), aircraft ground equipment facilities (a single storey building extension and new covered storage associated with an existing building used for maintenance), a fuel system maintenance dock (a single storey hangar with fuel system maintenance dock), a munitions maintenance facility (a single storey building extension and new covered storage to an existing building for the maintenance of munitions), residential accommodation (a three or four-storey dormitory for up to 144 beds), a dining facility, a munitions storage administration maintenance building, a hospital up to four storeys to provide inpatient services, outpatient and speciality care clinics, ancillary services, support and medical administrative functions and a high school to house about 560 students.

[41] The work on Alpha-Bravo Apron was completed in August 2020, allowing F-15E Strike Eagle operations of the 492nd and 494th Fighter Squadrons to be consolidated on one ramp.

F-15E Strike Eagles, based at Lakenheath, were allegedly scrambled in response to the drones as they impacted local flight operations.

[45] RAF Regiment personnel were later deployed to the bases with the ORCUS C-UAS system in response to a second sighting of unidentified drones in the night hours of 25 November.

[52] RAF Lakenheath's gate guardian is North American F-100D Super Sabre, serial number '54-2269'.

The deployment of the Missile system sparked protests all over Western Europe, and RAF Lakenheath was one of the most prominent military sites.

[56] In 1985, the future Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams was arrested for singing psalms at a CND protest at Lakenheath.

Addressing the crowd was Jeremy Corbyn, who cycled to RAF Lakenheath from the railway station in Ely.