US tankers moved out of RAF Mildenhall over Iran threat, report says
The US Air Force moved refuelling tankers from RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk to Germany and other bases on Monday because of a threat linked to Iran, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing officials and flight-tracking data, and the security posture at Mildenhall and neighbouring Lakenheath has been raised to the second-highest level, used when “a form of terrorist action is likely”. The Ministry of Defence said: “Aircraft and other assets move regularly according to operational requirements.”
Two tankers diverted to Germany early on Monday and several more followed during the day, the report said; “the precise nature of the threat to RAF Mildenhall remains under discussion among US officials”. The US Air Force would give no details, saying only that aircraft rotate between bases “for a variety of reasons”; the White House, Pentagon and European Command did not respond. It is the second British base emptied of American aircraft in two months: B-1 bombers were withdrawn from RAF Fairford after five people were arrested in September and two more later on suspicion of assisting Iranian intelligence, and Andy Burnham said last month that activity was “likely to have been coordinated in Iran”. The Revolutionary Guard declared in July that Fairford and any base used to launch strikes were “legitimate targets”. The move signals the US intelligence picture of Iranian reach into Britain even as Donald Trump talks of the conflict “ending fairly soon”. Every account traces to the single WSJ report — the Guardian and Independent carry the same agency copy and the Times of Israel summarises it — and no outlet names the aircraft beyond “tankers”. Watch for an MoD or Suffolk police statement.