President Donald Trump has said the US moved its bombers out of RAF Fairford because of “some threats” to the base.
The Pentagon confirmed on Sunday that it had removed the bombers, believed to be about a dozen B-1 aircraft, from the Gloucestershire base and returned them to their home stations in the US.
Speaking to reporters as he left for Nebraska on Monday, Trump said the US had known about a “threat”, prompting the decision to move the aircraft.
US media reports suggested the decision followed intelligence indicating that Iran was planning a drone attack. The BBC has not independently confirmed the reports, while Trump declined to provide details.
The exact nature of the threat remains unclear. Sources in Washington told the BBC it could have involved attempts to sabotage or strike the aircraft if hostilities with Iran resumed.
One source close to the White House pointed to Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb as an example of how an enemy could target military assets from a distance.
Operation Spiderweb, carried out in June last year, involved Ukraine smuggling drones into Russia. The drones were transported on lorries to locations near airbases by drivers who were unaware of their cargo before they were launched at their targets.
The source said: “Whatever they thought it was, it was taken extremely seriously.”
Earlier on Monday, a No 10 spokesperson insisted RAF Fairford was safe and referred to Trump’s comments last week praising the UK’s “police, defence and security services” in relation to the base.
Trump’s comments appear to confirm US media reports that a new threat prompted the removal of the bombers following a major incident on 27 September, when police were alerted to three “suspicious vehicles” near the airbase.
Trump was asked outside the White House whether a “specific threat” had led the US to withdraw the bombers.
He replied: “Yeah I think we can say that. They didn’t fly out by accident.
“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 that made the threat”, but did not identify them.
When asked whether the threat was linked to Iran, he later said “they would be linked to Iran”.
The BBC has contacted the White House and the Ministry of Defence for comment.
Trump and Vice-President JD Vance’s comments differ from those of Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
While Trump and Vance referred to an unspecified threat, Rubio was more guarded, saying it was “not unusual” for military units and assets to be moved around the world.
RAF Fairford, in the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, has been at the centre of an incident being investigated by counter-terror police.
Five men were initially arrested on suspicion of terror offences and later released on bail. A sixth man, a UK-Iranian national, was also arrested and released on bail.
After the first five men were released, Trump criticised the decision, while US officials suggested Iran could have been involved in the incident.
Whitehall sources have not disputed reports that Washington’s decision to remove the bombers was linked to the incident at the Gloucestershire airbase.
Speaking earlier on Monday, Rubio said he would not directly link the incident to the decision to withdraw the bombers.
He added: “It’s not unusual to see movement of assets to different parts of the world based on exercises, redeployments, people changing out and new people coming in, new planes coming in and old planes going out.”
Rubio said the US still had full confidence in the security of all its bases and that British authorities had been very co-operative since the incident.
Vance later said the bombers had been moved out of an “abundance of caution”, adding that Washington believed Iran was doing what it had “done for 49 years… which is engage in acts of terrorism against the US and against a lot of other people”.
Days after the RAF Fairford incident, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said there were “strong indications” that Iran had played a part, but he did not provide further details.
Rubio also said the incident had “clearly involve[d] the hands of a foreign actor” without providing further information.
Tehran has strongly denied any involvement.
In July, Iran said “any base used for aggression against Iranian territory constitutes a legitimate target for our forces”.
RAF Fairford, near the village of Whelford, has been used as a forward operating location by the US Air Force for decades.
In recent months, the US has flown B-1 and B-52 bombers from the base for operations in the Middle East, after the UK approved a US request to use it for defensive strikes on Iran.
Christoph Bergs, a research analyst at defence think tank the Royal United Services Institute, told Reuters that the redeployment would reduce America’s ability to “quickly surge sorties against Iran, reducing the threat level somewhat”.
However, he said the use of RAF Fairford had already been limited because London had stipulated that it could only be used for defensive strikes.
The aircraft could potentially be moved to Diego Garcia or bases in the Gulf, which could reduce the need for air-to-air refuelling. Bergs said that would depend on available capacity, negotiations with allies and security considerations.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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