US flies about a dozen B-1 bombers out of RAF Fairford after fresh plot warnings

The United States Air Force flew about a dozen B-1 Lancer bombers out of RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire on Sunday and back to home stations in the United States. The Pentagon confirmed the removal. US officials told the New York Times that new information about an Iran-backed plot against the base had emerged in the previous 24 hours. The Ministry of Defence in London has not commented. Whitehall officials did not dispute that the move answered the threat, and they described an ongoing high tempo of Iranian threat warnings against the United Kingdom.

The decision was taken at operational level by the US military and passed to British counterparts. Pentagon officials called it military rather than political. They also said the bombers can still fly missions from the continental United States or from another European base. Iran said in July that any base used for aggression against Iranian territory is a legitimate target. Fairford has been used for Middle East strikes, including defensive strikes on Iran that London approved.

The arrests that sit behind the move

On 27 September police were alerted to three suspicious vehicles near the base. Five men, UK nationals from London aged 23 to 25, were arrested in the early hours on suspicion of explosives offences and of preparing a terrorist act. They were later released on bail, which police described as an investigative decision. A sixth man, a UK-Iranian national aged 25, was arrested in London on Thursday on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts and released on bail on Saturday.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said there were strong indications that Iran played a part, and he gave no further detail. Tehran denied involvement. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the case clearly involved a foreign actor and also gave no name. President Donald Trump said he was surprised the suspects had been bailed, and that Britain had worked closely with the United States.

Why the B-1, and not a B-52

Ezra Cohen, a defence official in Trump's first administration, told the BBC the B-1 is no longer in production and that the fleet is small. He called the aircraft a strategic asset and said Washington would protect it. He added that pulling the jets back raises the cost of a strike on Iran, because the aircraft must now launch from the United States or from a different European field. B-52 bombers were last used from Fairford in March. The aircraft removed on Sunday were B-1s.

Fairford, near Whelford in the Cotswolds, has been a US Air Force forward location for decades. It is not a permanent bomber base. Jets deploy in, fly, and leave. A standing detachment of about a dozen B-1s is still a large share of a fleet that is not being replaced. Moving them does not ground the force. It changes the flight time, the tanker demand and the political permission required for the next sortie.

What is not known

No charge sheet has been published. The six men are on bail, not convicted. Burnham's phrase was strong indications, not a finding. Rubio's phrase was a foreign actor, not a named service. The Pentagon has not said how many aircraft left, only that the bombers at Fairford went home. The figure of about a dozen comes from officials describing the detachment. The useful fact for the next week is operational: the B-1s that were at Fairford on Saturday are not there now, and the stated reason is a plot warning tied to the 27 September arrests.