Nocturnal 
Donald Trump says “some threats” led the US to pull its bombers out of RAF Fairford, just over a week after a suspected terror plot near the Gloucestershire base.
The Pentagon confirmed on Sunday that it had removed its bombers from the airbase, with the aircraft returned to their home stations in America. The BBC reports the fleet is thought to number around a dozen B-1s, though LBC reported the Pentagon’s announcement referred to bombers including B-1s, B-2s and B-52s.
Speaking to reporters as he left the White House for Nebraska on Monday, Trump confirmed the move was deliberate. “Yeah, I think we can say that. They didn’t fly out by accident,” he said, as quoted by the BBC and The Sun.
He added: “There were some threats. And rather than tempting the enemy, we’ll capture the enemy and beat the enemy. But why should we leave them there? So we moved them around a little bit. Not very far.”
Trump said Washington “actually knows the people who made the threat”, and later said they “would be linked to Iran” when pressed by reporters, though he gave no further detail.
What sparked the alert
The withdrawal follows a major incident on 27 September, when police were alerted to three “suspicious vehicles” near RAF Fairford. A local farmer reportedly called 999 after failing to get an answer from the base’s guardroom, and dozens of nearby homes were evacuated.
Five British men in their mid-20s, from London, were arrested on suspicion of offences under the Explosives Act and of preparing terrorist acts. The Sun reports a substance found in drums in their vehicles was later found not to be a viable explosive, understood to be petrol, and the men were bailed.
A sixth suspect, a British-Iranian dual national, was separately arrested in Westminster and questioned on suspicion of preparing an act of terrorism, before being bailed on Saturday. No charges have been confirmed in relation to the incident, and the men’s names have not been released.
US media reports suggested intelligence pointed to a possible Iranian drone attack on the base, a claim echoed by Sky News and The Sun citing American officials, though the BBC says it has not independently confirmed this. Sources close to the White House reportedly cited Ukraine’s “Operation Spiderweb” — in which drones were smuggled into Russia on lorries before being launched at airbases — as the kind of threat being taken seriously.
Why it matters
Not everyone in the US administration is telling the same story. Secretary of State Marco Rubio played down any direct link, telling reporters: “We’ve documented what happened last week. I wouldn’t directly tie that to the move that was made,” adding that rotating “new planes coming in, old planes going out” was routine. Vice-President JD Vance said the move was made “out of an abundance of caution”.
That contrasts with Trump’s more pointed language blaming a specific threat, and with his earlier criticism of the decision to bail the first five suspects.
Downing Street has insisted RAF Fairford remains safe. A No 10 spokesperson declined to comment on “foreign nations’ military operations” but pointed to Trump’s praise last week for the UK’s “police, defence and security services”. The spokesman also noted the Defence Secretary’s comments that the UK has “tried and tested approaches” to defending its bases.
RAF Fairford has been used by Washington for sensitive operations before, including strikes linked to tensions with Iran, after Sir Keir Starmer granted the US permission to use British bases for “defensive” action during the Middle East war. For now, the exact nature of the threat remains unconfirmed, and it is unclear when or if US bombers will return to the base.
