The Pentagon has pulled its B-1 bombers from RAF Fairford back to US bases after a counter-terror investigation in Gloucestershire. Downing Street said on Monday the base remains safe and declined to comment on US operations.
The United States has withdrawn all of its B-1 bombers from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, and Downing Street said on Monday that the base remains safe.
A Pentagon official confirmed on Sunday that the bombers, thought to number about a dozen B-1 Lancers, had returned to home stations in the United States, the BBC reported. Tracking sites showed B-1s leaving Fairford on Sunday. The move follows a 27 September alert over three suspicious vehicles near the base. Five men were arrested on suspicion of terror offences and later released on bail, and a sixth man, a UK-Iranian national, was also arrested and released on bail.
Whitehall sources have not disputed that Washington's decision responded to the Fairford incident. The BBC reported it was told the decision was military rather than political, taken at operational level and passed from the US military to British counterparts. The Ministry of Defence has not commented. The New York Times reported that US commanders had received new threats about an Iran-backed plot against the base, citing two US officials.
A Number 10 spokesperson said he would not comment on foreign nations' military operations, said the base was safe, and pointed to comments last week in which President Donald Trump praised British police, defence and security services in relation to the base.
Police inquiries into the September arrests remain the public British thread of the case. The Pentagon has not, in the BBC accounts, given a fuller operational reason beyond the withdrawal itself.