US withdraws B-1 bombers from RAF Fairford after Sept. 27 incident

The United States has withdrawn all its B-1 bombers from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and returned them to their home bases in the United States, the Pentagon said, one week after several people were arrested on suspicion of plotting attacks near the air base.

Operational move taken after September 27 incident

A Pentagon spokesperson wrote in an email: "While operational security did not allow us to confirm the movement of our forces and equipment in real time, we can now confirm that all U.S. bombers deployed to Fairford have returned to their home bases in the United States." The statement did not give a specific reason for the withdrawal.

The action follows an incident on September 27 when police were alerted to three suspicious vehicles near the airfield. Five men were initially arrested on suspicion of terrorism-related offences near the base and later released on bail. A sixth man, a dual British–Iranian national, was arrested afterwards and also released on bail.

British government sources in London did not dispute that Washington's decision was a reaction to the incident at the Gloucestershire air base. Officials also described the move as a military, not political, decision taken at an operational level and communicated by the U.S. military to its British counterparts.

RAF Fairford has in recent months been used by the United States Air Force (USAF) as a forward operating location. From there, the U.S. has deployed B-1 and B-52 bombers to the Middle East after the United Kingdom approved U.S. requests to use the base for defensive strikes related to Iran.

In July Tehran warned that "any base used for aggression against Iranian territory represents a legitimate target for our forces." A few days after the September incident, and before the arrest of the sixth man, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio told Fox News that "it is clear that a foreign actor is involved."

Photo: press material from the event