Fire protection for a front-line USAF base.
RAF Lakenheath serves as a key base for United States Air Force units, including the 48th Fighter Wing, known as the Liberty Wing. Part of the United States Air Forces in Europe - Air Forces Africa, the wing operates both the F-15E Strike Eagle and the F-35A Lightning II. While the project details are classified, the scheme provides essential support for the base's aircraft operations by delivering a facility for aircraft maintenance.
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.
A dual-standard fire protection design.
Compliance here spanned an unusually wide set of codes: US DoD Unified Facilities Criteria, International Building Codes, NFPA codes, British Standards, Defence Infrastructure Fire Standards and specific base codes. Osborn Associates produced a UK Stage 3 and 4 design - equivalent to US IFC 30%-60% and 90% - covering hydraulic calculations, basis of design reports, technical specifications, design criteria schedules, system graphs, water supply layouts, system layouts, P&IDs and related documentation.
The fire protection scope centred on water-based deluge fire sprinklers and strategically positioned fire hydrants connected to a dedicated water supply, ensuring comprehensive fire protection across the critical areas of the facility. Bringing US and UK codes into a single coherent design is a specialist task in itself, and one that defines fire protection work on the US bases in the UK.
One design answering to two national code regimes.
The defining challenge of fire protection engineering on a US base in the UK is that the design must satisfy two national standards regimes at once. US Unified Facilities Criteria and NFPA codes sit alongside British Standards and Defence Infrastructure Fire Standards, and where they differ the design has to meet the more onerous requirement rather than choose between them.
Delivering a fully coordinated UK Stage 3 and 4 design against that combined code set, for a facility supporting front-line F-15E and F-35A operations, called for fluency in both systems and the judgement to reconcile them. It is exactly the kind of specialist defence fire protection work that has become a mainstay of Osborn Associates' engagements through AtkinsRealis.
