Naming of British Airbases
The Royal Air Force (RAF) call their bases "Royal Air Force station", followed by the station name. This is often abbreviated into "RAF" plus the name, e.g. RAF Marham. They are generally named after the closest railway station as rail travel was the main means of transport for service personnel in the early days of the RAF. Many RAF stations have long since lost their local railway station. Other bases were named after the local village, or used the name of the building in which they resided, such as RAF Bentley Priory, or country (e.g. RAF Belize). There is no difference in nomenclature for non-flying RAF stations, and overseas RAF stations have followed the same principles.
The aviation division of the Royal Navy, the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) generally follow the same principles of naming as the RAF, but are instead prefixed with Royal Naval Air Station (RNAS), such as RNAS Yeovilton. However, in maintaining the maritime link, all Royal Navy air stations are additionally named in the same manner as the Navy's ships - in Yeoviltons' instance, it is also called HMS Heron.
The British Army Air Corps have previously used the term "Airfield", preceded by the local name, for example Wattisham Airfield. However, as the majority of current Army airfields are former RAF stations, they now precede the locality name with "Army Air Corps" (AAC), for example AAC Middle Wallop.
Read more about this topic: Naming Of Military Air Bases
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