“While operational security precluded us from confirming the movement of our assets and forces in real-time, we can acknowledge now that all U.S. bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford have re-deployed to their home stations in the United States,” a U.S. Defense Department official told TIME, specifying that U.S. bombers “routinely operate around the world to support global force readiness and operational requirements.” The official added that America’s bomber force remains “ready to deliver precision global strike capabilities… anywhere, anytime.”
The Pentagon has not offered a specific reason behind the move, but it comes after five men, all U.K. nationals, were arrested on suspicion of explosives and terrorism offenses on Sept. 27, following a suspected terror plot nearby RAF Fairford, an airbase used by the U.S. to strike Iran. Officers made the arrests after receiving a tip-off that three "suspicious vehicles" appeared to be heading toward the direction of the base. Amid ongoing investigations, British counterterrorism police arrested a dual British-Iranian national in central London on Oct. 1 on suspicion of terrorist acts in connection with the incident. All arrestees have been released on bail.
“Fairford is normally the place during a crisis where America sends bombers to beef up America's military capability and its formal operating bases, whether that's for operations in Europe, like the Kosovo campaign, or for operations in the Gulf through 2003 onwards, or indeed for operations in Iran,” Dunn tells TIME. “This [removal] is an indication of concerns about the safety of those assets in their forward operating bases.”
A report by the New York Times said U.S. commanders had received new threats about an Iran-backed plot against RAF Fairford, citing two U.S. officials. TIME has been unable to independently verify these reports.
Both U.K. and U.S. officials have voiced suspicion of Iranian involvement in the suspected terror plot.
Iran has vehemently denied any involvement. In the immediate aftermath of the initial arrests, the Iranian embassy in London said it "categorically rejects and strongly condemns" any attempt to "link Iran to" the arrests made near RAF Fairford. After Burham’s comments, Iran doubled down on its denial, with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accusing the U.K. of “barking up the wrong tree.”
Dunn says that although Iran “hasn't got the range to [directly] attack bases in the U.K.,” it does not necessarily remove the potential threat to U.S. assets stationed there. “Iran—by doing things via proxies, organized criminal gangs, or hiring people gangs through payments through the dark web—can still have a military effect and a deterrent effect on the operation of a base like Fairford,” he says.
How RAF Fairford has supported U.S. military operations for decades
RAF Fairford is a NATO-designated standby deployment and a U.S. forward operating base for U.S. Global Strike Command, according to U.K. government records. The base, which opened in 1944, has been used extensively by U.S. military aircraft in previous conflicts, including "Operation Iraqi Freedom" in 2003.
Former British Prime Minister Keir Starmer initially refused to allow U.S. access to U.K. military bases in its offensive strikes against Iran—a move that earned him the wrath of Trump. Starmer changed his position in March, authorizing the U.S. to use bombers based at RAF Fairford to carry out strikes on Iranian missile sites used to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
Starmer had previously warned the British public of the general threat posed by Iran. On Feb. 28, in an address to the nation hours after the U.S. and Israel launched its initial strikes against Iran, he said: “Even in the United Kingdom, the Iranian regime poses a direct threat to dissidents and the Jewish community. Over the last year alone, they have backed more than 20 potentially lethal attacks on U.K. soil.”
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