RAF MILDENHALL, England — When the air traffic control tower was built here in 1939, the British bombers landing on the nearby runway were considered large and cumbersome.

That same tower is in use today, and aircraft have grown much larger. The 700 feet between the runway and the tower creates a ringside seat now too close for comfort.

“When we get a C-5, we think, man, that’s close,” said Tech Sgt. Rowland Gove, a tower watch supervisor.

Master Sgt. Rob Braun, chief controller for the 100th Operations Support Squadron, said, “The tower is too close to the runway. [It is] an obstacle for aircraft coming in and landing.”

The solution to that problem is growing daily a few hundred yards from the current tower. Construction is under way on a tower complex that will add needed height and modern equipment to the controllers’ workplace.

Much of the current equipment in the tower is 25 to 30 years old.

Due to open in March 2004, the $15.3 million complex will also house the fire department, the airfield operations flight, the combat weather team, radio maintenance and a lounge for distinguished visitors. Personnel in those units are now spread out in several buildings, despite the need for them to communicate.

“Daily interaction between members … is the result [of the new complex],” said Braun, who will still be at RAF Mildenhall when the new tower opens. “It will help relationships.”

The current tower will be torn down, along with the fire department next door, when the new complex opens.

Besides being an obstacle, the current tower is only about 45 feet high, 20 feet too short by Air Force standards, Braun said.

Motioning to the far side of the base, he said, “We really can’t see anybody taxiing back there.”

Gove said he looked around for the tower when he first arrived at the base, not expecting to see one so low.

“When I was told this was the tower, I was disappointed,” he said.

The new tower will be 123 feet high and allow unobstructed views to both ends of the runway, “which is our bread-and-butter,” Braun said.

An additional bonus will be a tower simulator system used to train controllers. Braun said the system will reduce the time it takes to train a new controller on the specific requirements of the airfield. Now, with only real aircraft traffic on which to train, a new controller needs nine to 12 months to learn his or her job.

“With consistent traffic [provided by the simulator], there’s no reason people can’t get trained in six to eight months,” Braun said.

Despite its age, the current tower is perfectly adequate for the job of helping aircraft launch and land safely at RAF Mildenhall, Braun said.

“We have the basic requirements here,” he said. “We’ll get the job done, regardless.”

But the new tower, he said, will just make doing that important job a bit easier. Plus, it provides the controllers with a morale boost.

“It makes you feel important is what it does,” Braun said. “Giving them something like this makes them feel important.”