page_title: RAF Molesworth
section_title: USAF use
hierarchical_section_title: RAF Molesworth / History / USAF use
caption_attribution_description: Aerial view of RAF Molesworth, United Kingdom, sometime on the early to mid 1960s.
context_page_description: Royal Air Force Molesworth or more simply RAF Molesworth is a Royal Air Force station located near Molesworth, Cambridgeshire, England with a history dating back to 1917.
  Its runway and flight line facilities were closed in 1973 and demolished. New facilities were constructed to support ground-launched cruise missile operations in the early 1980s. It was one of the two British bases to house cruise missiles and a focus for protests. It is now a non-flying facility under the control of the United States Air Force, and is one of two Royal Air Force stations in Cambridgeshire currently used by the United States Air Forces in Europe. Molesworth, RAF Alconbury and RAF Upwood were considered the "Tri-Base Area" due to their close geographic proximity and interdependency until RAF Upwood closed in late 2012.
  RAF Alconbury and RAF Molesworth were the last Second World War era Eighth Air Force airfields in the United Kingdom that were still actively in use and controlled by the United States Air Force. It was from Molesworth on 4 July 1942 that the first USAAF Eighth Air Force mission was flown over Nazi-occupied territory.
context_section_description: As the Cold War increased in intensity, the US Air Force began looking to expand in Western Europe.  RAF Molesworth was chosen in 1951 to become home to the 582d Air Resupply Group.  The station was enlarged with main runway extensions and modern facilities.  After much runway work by the 801st Engineer Battalion, the group moved from Great Falls, Montana to the station in February 1954.
caption: RAF Molesworth circa early to mid-1960s. With the arrival of the Cold War 582nd Resupply Group in 1953, the station was modernised with the construction of a 9,000 feet jet runway and permanent facilities, overlaid over the Second World War Eighth Air Force airfield.  This configuration existed until about 1980.
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