America just pulled every heavy bomber out of Britain over an Iran plot
1 hour ago · 5 October 2026Share
A U.S. Air Force B-1 Lancer flies over an undisclosed location. File photo. U.S. Air Force · Public domain
All 12 US B-1 bombers just left Britain.
They've flown out of RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and gone home to the United States.
Why? Fresh warnings about a suspected Iran-backed plot against the base.
This happened about a day ago. By early this week, at least three of the bombers had already landed at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.
A Pentagon spokesperson has now confirmed it. All the aircraft are back at their home stations.
RAF Fairford sits roughly 160 kilometres west of London. Here's why that base matters. It's the only place in Europe where American heavy bombers operate from. And it's been a stopping point for US bombers through the whole war with Iran, which started on 28 February this year.
The Pentagon spokesperson says quote "we can acknowledge now that all US bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford have re-deployed to their home stations in the United States."
So that's the Pentagon confirming, after the fact, that the whole bomber force is gone.
And here's the part that shows how fast this moved. The New York Times, citing two anonymous US officials, says the withdrawal happened quickly. Some aircraft reportedly left before the refuelling tankers meant to support their flight home were even ready. That detail comes from the Wall Street Journal, and no other outlet Zufron could read has confirmed it.
So why pull every single bomber out at once?
It follows a string of arrests.
A week and a half ago, UK police arrested five men on suspicion of plotting to plant explosives close to the base. They were released on bail a day later. Investigators found petrol in their vans. No explosives.
Then a few days after that, police arrested a 25-year-old British-Iranian dual national in London, on suspicion of plotting an attack on the base itself. Six people have now been arrested over the incident in total. All released on bail. The investigation is still open.
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The U.S. Ambassador to the U.K. visits the cockpit of a B-52 Stratofortress during a Bomber Task Force deployment at RAF Fairford on March 29, 2019. File photo. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Philip Bryant · Public domain
Andy Burnham, the UK Prime Minister, says there are strong indications Iran played a part.
Vicki Evans, the senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism policing, says the investigation is complex, and that teams are looking at every angle, including a foreign state being involved.
Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, says the plot clearly involves the hands of a foreign actor.
Donald Trump says the men arrested were trying to do "big damage" to US facilities, and praised British police.
Iran has denied all of it.
Its embassy in London says it categorically rejects and strongly condemns any attempt to link Iran to the arrests. Abbas Araghchi, Iran's Foreign Minister, says quote "barking up the wrong tree" on the UK's claim. He also wrote that Britain releasing the men without charge really says it all. Iran has summoned the UK's ambassador in protest over the past week or so.
But here's the thing. The Pentagon and British officials are being careful to keep two things separate.
The arrests from a week and a half ago are one thread. The new warnings that triggered this weekend's withdrawal are described as fresh intelligence, not just a repeat of the same plot. It isn't clear whether the two are even connected.
This isn't some small base to empty out. The US has used RAF Fairford since the Gulf War in the 1990s. Earlier this year, Britain gave America defensive access to bases including Fairford and Diego Garcia. And even with that, Britain has largely stayed out of direct combat in the Iran war, despite pressure from the Trump administration to join in.
Iran has warned before that bases used to launch strikes on its territory could be treated as legitimate targets.
So what don't we know? What exactly the new intelligence warnings contained. Whether this redeployment is temporary or permanent. And whether other US bases in Britain or Germany are seen as facing the same risk.
For now, Europe's only heavy bomber base for the US Air Force sits empty. And the bombers are home in South Dakota.
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