Fire protection for the USAF's European bomber base.
RAF Fairford hosts United States Air Force personnel and supports a detachment of the Lockheed U-2S Dragon Lady from the 99th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron, along with B-2 Spirit heavy strategic bombers. As the USAF's only European base capable of accommodating heavy bombers, RAF Fairford plays a strategic role in Bomber Task Force operations and supports major military missions. While the specific project details are restricted, the scope includes provisions for aircraft support, storage, crisis response and operational readiness.
The Defence Infrastructure Organisation and the United States Air Force, through AtkinsRealis, engaged Osborn Associates to deliver fire protection engineering and design services in full compliance with both UK and US standards, codes and guidance.
Site-wide fire protection to a combined code set.
Compliance spanned US DoD Unified Facilities Criteria, International Building Codes, NFPA codes, British Standards, Defence Infrastructure Fire Standards and specific base codes. Osborn Associates developed a UK Stage 3 and 4 design - equivalent to US IFC 30%-60% and 90% - including hydraulic calculations, basis of design reports, technical specifications, design criteria schedules, system graphs, water supply layouts, system layouts, P&IDs and ancillary details.
The fire protection scope encompassed site-wide water-based automatic fire sprinklers and strategically placed fire hydrants, drawing on a central dedicated water supply together with existing base infrastructure to ensure robust fire safety coverage across the critical areas - meeting both property protection and life safety requirements across a strategically important site.
Site-wide coverage at a strategically vital base, to two code regimes.
Fairford's strategic role raises the stakes on fire protection: as the only European base able to take heavy bombers, its readiness matters, and the fire safety of its hangars, support buildings and stored assets is part of that. The design had to deliver comprehensive, site-wide coverage rather than protecting individual buildings in isolation.
As with the other US-operated bases in the UK, the work meant reconciling US Unified Facilities Criteria and NFPA codes with British Standards and Defence Infrastructure Fire Standards in a single coordinated design, meeting the more onerous requirement wherever the two diverged. Integrating a new dedicated water supply with the base's existing infrastructure, across a site of this importance, is fire protection engineering at its most demanding - and a clear demonstration of the specialist defence capability Osborn Associates brings through its work with AtkinsRealis.
