The US has withdrawn all of its bombers from RAF Fairford, the UK military base at the centre of an incident being investigated by counter terror police. A statement from a US department official confirmed on Sunday it had removed its bombers – thought to be about a dozen B-1s – from the base back to their home stations in America. The US did not give a reason for the withdrawal, but it follows a major incident on 27 September when police were alerted to three “suspicious vehicles” near the airbase. Five men were initially arrested on suspicion of terror offences near the base and subsequently released on bail.
A sixth man, a UK-Iranian national, was also later arrested and released on bail. Whitehall sources have not disputed the decision from Washington was in response to the incident at the airbase in Gloucestershire. The BBC has also been told it was a military rather than a political decision – taken at an operational level – and communicated from the US military to its British counterparts. The UK’s Ministry of Defence has not commented.
Tracking websites showed B-1 bombers flying out of RAF Fairford on Sunday. Days after the incident at RAF Fairford, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said there were “strong indications” that Iran had played a part in the incident but did not provide further details. Tehran has strongly denied any involvement. Initially, five men aged between 23 and 25 were arrested in the early hours of the morning after vehicles were reported to be travelling towards the base operated by the US Air Force (USAF).
All five were UK nationals from London. They were arrested on suspicion of explosives offences and later on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act, before being released on bail in what police called an “investigative decision” that was “grounded in experience and strategy”. The sixth man, aged 25, was arrested in London on Thursday on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts. Counter terror police confirmed on Saturday he had also been released on bail.
RAF Fairford has been used as a forward operating location by the US Air Force (USAF) for decades. In recent months, the US has flown B-1 and B-52 bombers from the base for the Middle East, after the UK approved a US request to use it for defensive strikes on Iran. In July, Iran said “any base used for aggression against Iranian territory constitutes a legitimate target for our forces”. Days after the incident, and before the arrest of the sixth man, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Fox News that it “clearly involve[d] the hands of a foreign actor”.
Rubio did not provide further details – saying at the time he was limited on what he could say on air. US President Donald Trump separately said he was “surprised” the five men had been released on bail. “We know everything about them, we would not have released them,” he said, adding that the UK had worked with the US “very closely” on this. Many B-1 bombers flown from the UK were armed with precision-guided “bunker busting” bombs, with thicker casings to penetrate hardened or buried targets such as weapons stores.
They also carried air-to-surface missiles used against more heavily defended targets deeper inside Iran. Each bombing mission, depending on the location of the target, would likely have taken around 12 to 15 hours in total there and back, with air-to-air refuelling both ways. The Pentagon has stressed its bombing aircraft remain able to conduct missions “anywhere, anytime”, including through “operations that launch and recover from the continental United States”. Additional reporting by Chris Partridge.
