US withdraws B-1 bombers from British base amid security concerns

The United States has pulled 12 B-1 bombers from RAF Fairford after a security scare near the British airbase, removing a launch point for strikes on Iran while leaving Washington’s ability to attack from elsewhere intact.

The aircraft departed on Sunday for bases in the continental United States. They had been operating from Fairford for seven months, striking Iranian missile launch sites, the BBC reported. US Vice-President JD Vance said the withdrawal was made out of an “abundance of caution” amid concern about Iran, while Tehran denied any connection to events at the base.

The departure followed a September 27 incident in which five British men were arrested after being seen acting suspiciously with three white vans near Fairford’s perimeter. They were later released on bail. A UK-Iranian dual national was subsequently arrested on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts and was also released on bail. Al Jazeera reported that 85 homes were evacuated and a bomb disposal robot deployed near the base during the security response. No charges resulted from the incidents, it reported.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio played down a suggested link between the withdrawal and the September 27 arrests. British counter-terrorism police are still investigating and have not established what lay behind the events, according to the BBC.

Rubio said Washington has “confidence in the security of all our bases” and is working “very closely” with British authorities, who “couldn’t be more cooperative.” British officials told the BBC there was “an ongoing high tempo of threat from Iran to the UK,” making US airbases logical potential targets.

Iran warned in July that any country providing the US with a facility for strikes could be considered a “legitimate target,” the BBC reported. The broadcaster also said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps regards Britain as a participant in the US war with Iran, although the UK is not at war with Tehran.

Fairford allowed the US to launch and sustain heavy bombing missions more quickly than it could from distant bases, analysts told Al Jazeera. “The United States has lost a convenient launchpad, not its underlying strike capability,” said Dania Thafer of the Gulf International Forum.

The B-1 carries at least 34 tonnes of ordnance, according to Arun Dawson, a researcher at King’s College London. Without the Fairford-based bombers, longer flights could increase crew fatigue and demand for aerial refuelling, he told Al Jazeera. The US says it can still deploy the aircraft worldwide from domestic bases.

Other potential locations include Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean and US bases in the Gulf, analysts told Al Jazeera. Diego Garcia offers greater distance from potential Iranian attacks but requires longer flights; Gulf bases are closer to Iran but have faced Iranian counterstrikes.

The aircraft are costly assets. Each B-1 is worth about $330 million, according to the BBC, which reported that an Iranian strike on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia destroyed an E-3 Sentry early-warning aircraft worth more than half a billion dollars. Retired British general Sir Richard Barrons said that, whatever prompted the withdrawal, removing the bombers was prudent: “We now live in a world where a £1,000 drone could wreck one of those aircraft.”