Marham began in August 1916 as a night landing ground for the Royal Flying Corps. No. 51 Squadron arrived that September to fly home-defence patrols against Zeppelins, and the aerodrome closed in 1919. Work on the present station began in 1935. It opened on 1 April 1937 as a base for two heavy bomber squadrons. They flew Fairey Hendons and Handley Page Harrows at first, and Vickers Wellingtons from 1939. The airfield was enlarged in 1942, and Short Stirlings and de Havilland Mosquitoes then joined the Wellingtons.

The Mosquitoes arrived on 29 September 1942, when No. 105 Squadron moved in from Horsham St Faith. No. 139 Squadron joined it, and the two No. 2 Group squadrons shared aircraft. On 6 December 1942 both took part in Operation Oyster, the daylight attack on the Philips works at Eindhoven. On 30 January 1943 three No. 105 Squadron crews bombed Berlin’s broadcasting house at 11:00, just as Göring was due to speak. A second wave from No. 139 Squadron followed in the afternoon. Both Mosquito squadrons joined the Pathfinders’ Light Night Striking Force from 1 June 1943.

In 1944 Marham closed so that three concrete runways and new dispersals could be built. The main runway was 9,000 feet long, well beyond the standard wartime pattern. The RAF Marham Aviation Heritage Centre calls Marham one of four “Super Heavy Bomber” airfields. Other accounts put the number of airfields built to this enlarged plan at two, with Sculthorpe as the other. In the late 1940s the new runways took United States Air Force B-29 Superfortresses and B-50s, including aircraft for the Project Ruby trials.

In the early 1950s Marham flew English Electric Canberras, and a special weapons bomb store was built for atomic weapons. The V-force arrived in 1956. No. 214 Squadron re-formed with Vickers Valiants on 21 January, No. 207 Squadron on 1 April and No. 148 Squadron on 1 July. That April a Soviet delegation including Nikita Khrushchev, Marshal Bulganin and the designer A. N. Tupolev visited the station. In September and October the three Valiant squadrons deployed to Luqa, Malta, for the Suez operation, returning in November and December.

From 1957 the Valiants carried the nuclear deterrent, and the station badge chosen that year shows a blue bull with the motto “Deter”. Marham also became the home of RAF air-to-air refuelling. Valiant-to-Valiant trials began in 1957, and No. 214 Squadron was the trials unit until May 1960. Its record flights included Marham to Nairobi (4,350 miles in 7 hours 40 minutes) and Marham to Changi (8,110 miles in 15 hours 35 minutes). In April 1962 No. 214 Squadron formally became a tanker unit.

No. 49 Squadron joined the three Valiant squadrons on 26 June 1961. It brought XD818, the Valiant that had dropped Britain’s first live H-bomb in 1957. The Valiant era ended abruptly. Metal fatigue was found in the wing spars, and on 11 December 1964 every Valiant was grounded. The type was withdrawn at the end of January 1965, and the four squadrons disbanded between February and May 1965. XD818 was kept on the station until 1982, when it went to the RAF Museum.

The Handley Page Victor replaced the Valiant. No. 55 Squadron arrived on 24 May 1965 with six Victor BK1A tankers, and No. 57 Squadron followed that December. No. 214 Squadron re-formed with three-point tankers on 1 July 1966. The station also hosted the Air Refuelling School and, from May 1970, No. 232 Operational Conversion Unit, which had converted more than 1,400 aircrew to the Victor Mk1 by July 1974. By June 1976 both squadrons and the conversion unit were flying the Victor K2.

In April 1982 the Victors deployed to Ascension Island for the Falklands. Sources give the size of the force as 14–17: the Imperial War Museum describes a 17-aircraft detachment from Nos. 55 and 57 Squadrons, while other counts give 14 at Ascension by the end of April. For Black Buck 1, on 30 April–1 May, the plan in the RAF Museum shows 18 tanker sorties. Other accounts give 15 Victor sorties with 18 refuellings. Victor XH672 flew as lead tanker, “Red One”.

The Victors also flew maritime radar reconnaissance and refuelled Nimrods, Hercules, Harriers and Phantoms. In the 1991 Gulf War, Victors from Marham flew from Muharraq in Bahrain. XH672, painted as “Maid Marian”, was the top-scoring tanker with 52 missions. No. 55 Squadron, the last Victor unit, disbanded at Marham on 15 October 1993. The last official Victor flight, to RAF Shawbury, was on 30 November 1993.

Work on 24 hardened aircraft shelters began in 1977, and the first Tornado GR1 arrived in 1982. No. 617 Squadron re-formed as Marham’s first Tornado unit. The RAF’s squadron history files this under 1982, while other accounts date the re-formation to 1 January 1983. No. 27 Squadron followed. Canberras stayed on alongside the Tornados: No. 100 Squadron until 1982, and photographic reconnaissance Canberras until 2006.

Tornados deployed to the Gulf in 1990 for Operation Granby. Sixty GR1s flew from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and No. 617 Squadron fought in the campaign. On the first night, 17 January 1991, Wing Commander Nigel Elsdon, leading No. 27 Squadron from Marham, and Flight Lieutenant Max Collier were shot down and killed. By 2003 No. IX (B) Squadron was flying the Tornado GR4 from Marham. On 19–20 March 2011 its aircraft flew 3,000-mile round trips to strike Libya with Storm Shadow missiles on Operation Ellamy.

From 2014 Marham’s Tornados flew against Daesh over Iraq and Syria from RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus, on Operation Shader. The force came home to Marham on 5 February 2019 after four and a half years of continuous commitment, and the RAF retired the Tornado at the end of March 2019. Marham had also been the Tornado’s engineering base. BAE Systems ran a combined maintenance and upgrade facility on the station under the Tornado availability contract.

In 2013 Marham was named the sole operating base for the UK’s F-35B Lightning. Published figures for the building programme vary. A 2015 government announcement spoke of more than £300 million, other reports cite £250 million, and the Project Anvil works have been put at £500 million. In June 2017 a £135 million contract was placed for a hangar for 12 F-35Bs, runway resurfacing and vertical landing pads. The main runway closed for three weeks in September 2017 while it was resurfaced.

The force is run jointly by the RAF and the Royal Navy. No. 617 Squadron is the RAF’s front-line unit, and No. 207 Squadron is the joint conversion unit for pilots of both services. 809 Naval Air Squadron is a Royal Navy squadron. It was re-commissioned at Marham on 5 December 2023 as the second front-line F-35B squadron, and the RAF says its personnel are drawn equally from both services. Lightning Force Headquarters, also at Marham, runs the whole programme.

The National Audit Office reported in 2025 that the training centre (£81 million), the maintenance and finishing facility (£94 million) and the Lightning Operations Centre (£29 million) were in use. Other projects have slipped. A £151 million signature assessment facility, meant to open in 2021, is not expected until the 2030s; the Public Accounts Committee gives 2032. 809 Naval Air Squadron still works from portacabins, and its permanent facilities are now expected in 2029. Personnel told the Public Accounts Committee that the station’s accommodation was “shabby”.

The F-35B is flown from Norfolk but built for carrier operations. In June 2020 No. 617 Squadron embarked operational Lightnings on HMS Queen Elizabeth for the first time. In September 2020 it went back aboard to prepare for Carrier Strike Group 21, the ship’s first operational deployment. On 23 June 2021 the carrier had 18 RAF and United States Marine Corps F-35Bs aboard, and its jets flew their first combat missions, against Daesh.

The carrier’s air wing commander, Captain James Blackmore of the Royal Navy, said it was the Royal Navy’s return to maritime strike for the first time since Libya a decade earlier. He also said it was the first combat mission by US aircraft from a foreign carrier since HMS Victorious in 1943. The deployment also brought a loss. On 17 November 2021 a No. 617 Squadron F-35B crashed on take-off from HMS Queen Elizabeth because an engine intake cover had been left in place.

In 2025, 809 Naval Air Squadron and No. 617 Squadron sailed in HMS Prince of Wales on Operation Highmast, an eight-month deployment to the Mediterranean, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific. In November 2025, 24 UK F-35Bs were aboard, a record for the class. The Royal Navy declared carrier strike at full operating capability on 17 November. The National Audit Office noted that meeting this goal meant borrowing aircraft and people from the training squadron.