The US Defense Department said B-1 Lancer bombers deployed at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire have returned to bases in the United States.
The United States Air Force has withdrawn its B-1 Lancer strategic bombers from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, and the US Department of Defense confirmed the aircraft had returned to bases in the United States, BBC News reported on 5 October.
The move ends a deployment at the southern English base that had been tied to the wider US-Iran confrontation. Contemporary accounts said commanders moved the aircraft after fresh warnings of a plot targeting the base; those threat claims were not independently detailed in the Pentagon confirmation cited by BBC.
Fairford has long been used for US bomber rotations in Europe. Pulling the B-1s back to American bases reduces the visible US strike presence in Britain while leaving the underlying conflict over Iran and regional shipping unresolved.
British and American officials did not, in the reports reviewed, announce a replacement deployment. Further changes will depend on threat assessments and decisions in Washington.
The withdrawal was also noted in US morning news briefs the same day, which treated the return of the bombers as a confirmed Pentagon statement rather than a rumor.