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U.S. pulls all 12 B-1 bombers from RAF Fairford after Britain bails plot suspects

U.S. Pulls All 12 B-1 Bombers From RAF Fairford After Britain Bails Suspects in Alleged Iran-Linked Plot

by
M.A. Rothman

By M.A. RothmanOctober 4, 2026 · 4 min read
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The United States has pulled every one of its B-1B Lancer bombers out of RAF Fairford in England. All 12 aircraft left the Gloucestershire base over roughly a single day, on Oct. 4, 2026, a week after British police arrested five men near the base in a suspected terror plot and then released them on bail within about a day.

The Pentagon confirmed the move in a terse statement: “All U.S. bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford have redeployed to their home stations in the United States,” Air & Space Forces Magazine reported. U.S. officials did not publicly spell out what prompted the hasty departure. But the context is impossible to miss.

What happened at Fairford

In the early hours of Sunday, Sept. 27, police were called to reports of suspicious activity near the base, including oddly parked vans and a group of hooded, masked men, according to Al Jazeera. What were initially thought to be explosives were found near the base, police declared a major incident, and 85 homes in the nearby village of Whelford were evacuated while Army bomb-disposal experts examined the vans with a robot, CNY Central reported.

Five men were arrested on suspicion of explosives and terrorism offenses. LBC reported that all five are British nationals from London, aged between 23 and 25. Counterterrorism police later said they were suspected of preparing a terrorist act.

Police later said no explosives were in the vans. “We can confirm that no improvised explosive devices have been found,” said Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, head of Counter Terrorism Policing, adding that investigators had recovered “a quantity of an accelerant, petrol.”

Then, on Monday, Sept. 28, all five were released on police bail. Taylor insisted the case was very much alive. “To be very clear, this does not mean that the investigation is over,” he said, according to LBC. “They absolutely remain under investigation as we explore multiple lines of inquiry.” He defended the decision as “an investigative decision, and one which is grounded in experience and strategy.”

The Iran connection

RAF Fairford is not just any base. American bombers deployed there in early March as the United States went to war with Iran, and at the peak about two dozen bombers were based there, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine. After a shaky ceasefire in April, the remaining B-1s mostly flew training missions. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had said in July that it considered the base a legitimate target, the magazine reported.

On Sept. 30, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said there were “strong indications” of Iranian involvement and called the investigation “ongoing, complex and serious,” Al Jazeera reported. On Oct. 1, police arrested a sixth suspect, a 25-year-old dual British-Iranian national, in Westminster in central London, on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts. The Times reported that he was being examined as a possible “recruiter.” Iran summoned Britain’s ambassador in Tehran over the arrests, and its deputy foreign minister called the claims “false and ridiculous.”

On Oct. 3, police said the British-Iranian suspect had also been released on bail, while the investigation “is continuing.” The next day, the bombers were gone.

Trump: “Don’t let them have bail”

President Trump made no secret of what he thought of Britain’s handling of the case. Asked about it in the Oval Office, he said, “I would have said ‘Don’t let them have bail.'” He added: “I’m surprised that they released them. I wouldn’t have done that. They worked with us very closely. We know everything about them. We would not have released them,” according to LBC.

Speaking to reporters again on Sept. 29, he said he was disappointed. “We were involved in (the investigation), but as you know, your fellow countrymen, let them go,” Trump said, according to the Press Association. “Well, they didn’t let them go. They put them out on bail.” The authorities, he said, should not have done that.

Britain’s government defended its police. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband praised the country’s “world-leading” counterterrorism police and said public safety was the government’s “absolute number one priority,” LBC reported.

Why it matters

The Pentagon has not formally tied the withdrawal to the bail decisions, and its statement stressed that the bomber force remains ready to strike anywhere in the world from home. But consider the sequence. A suspected plot near a base used for strikes on Iran. A British prime minister pointing at Tehran. Six suspects arrested, and six suspects back on the street on bail within days. Then a dozen of America’s most valuable strategic aircraft flown out in a day.

An alliance is supposed to be a two-way street. Britain hosts American bombers, and in return the United States expects the host country to treat a suspected plot against those aircraft and the Americans who fly them with the seriousness it deserves. British police may well have good investigative reasons for their decisions. Washington, for its part, has every reason not to leave its bombers sitting where it cannot be sure they are safe.

If Britain won’t hold suspects in a plot against an American bomber base, America is right not to leave its bombers there as targets.

Sources

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