The US Removes Every Bomber From RAF Fairford
The Pentagon has confirmed that all American bombers at RAF Fairford — thought to be about a dozen B-1s — have returned to their home stations in the United States. The withdrawal follows the 27 September incident at the Gloucestershire base, after which six men were arrested and bailed. The BBC was told it was “a military rather than a political decision”, taken at operational level. The Ministry of Defence has not commented.
Fairford is a hundred miles west of London and has been the staging post for the longest-range part of the air campaign: B-1s flying from it carried bunker-busting bombs and air-to-surface missiles against deeper Iranian targets, on sorties of twelve to fifteen hours with refuelling in both directions. Running those missions from the continental United States instead is possible — the Pentagon stresses its bombers can strike “anywhere, anytime” — but it is slower and costlier, which is why the move reads as a judgement about risk on the ground rather than about capability. Five men aged 23 to 25, all British nationals from London, were arrested over three suspicious vehicles near the base and bailed; a sixth, a 25-year-old British-Iranian, was arrested on Thursday and bailed on Saturday. Andy Burnham has said there are “strong indications” Iran played a part and Marco Rubio said the episode “clearly” involved “the hands of a foreign actor”; Tehran denies it, and said in July that any base used for aggression against it was a legitimate target. At sea the pressure has not eased: the UK Maritime Trade Operations Centre reported a crude tanker hit by a projectile four nautical miles east of Oman on Saturday and another struck in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, its engine room damaged. Watch whether any of the six is charged.