The Army's specialist bomb disposal team is examining several vehicles at the scene. There's a cordon in place. Police say they believe the incident is contained. A Hazardous Area Response Team is also there.
No official link has been confirmed between the arrests and RAF Fairford itself. The US Air Force hasn't confirmed any change to security measures at the base. The UK Ministry of Defence hasn't said anything yet.
That's everything we know.
Why this mattersSo why does this base matter so much?
RAF Fairford isn't just another British air base. Since February, American bombers have been flying out of it to hit targets in Iran.
Three US B-1B Lancer bombers landed there seven months ago. That's believed to be the first American strike mission against Iran ever launched from a British base. Sir Keir Starmer, Britain's Prime Minister at the time, approved the request to use UK bases for what was called defensive strikes on Iranian missile sites. He'd refused it once before.
So this base sits right at the centre of Britain's role in a war it never officially joined.
That's why a security incident here gets noticed far beyond Gloucestershire.
Before police confirmed the major incident, social media reports said security measures at Fairford had been raised, possibly to Force Protection Condition Delta. That's the highest level there is. It's normally used when an attack has actually happened, or when intelligence points to one being imminent at that exact location.
An RAF spokesperson said they would not discuss specific security measures, citing operational security.
So that's not a confirmation. But it's not a denial either.
There's a reason people are asking questions. One report, not confirmed anywhere else, says Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps had previously named RAF Fairford as a target over its role in the strikes.
But here's the thing. None of this means the arrests are actually connected to the base's war role.
What's actually happened is this: police arrested men over an explosives offence, and called in Army bomb disposal specialists. Whether that has anything to do with Iran, with the base itself, or with something else entirely — nobody official has said.
The base's role has already changed things once this year. Its annual air show, the Royal International Air Tattoo, was reportedly cancelled five months ago because of the military operations there, according to one report not confirmed elsewhere.
So three questions are sitting unanswered right now. Who the arrested men are. Whether this is connected to the base at all. And what security actually looks like at Fairford this morning.
None of them have been answered yet.
