US withdraws B-1 bombers from RAF Fairford amid “new threats”

The US Air Force has pulled all of its B-1B Lancer bombers out of RAF Fairford, days after an alleged plot targeting the airbase sparked a major counter-terrorism investigation.

Five men arrested as part of the investigation have since been released on bail, while a sixth suspect, a dual British-Iranian national, was also released pending further inquiries.

The BBC reported that the USAF has withdrawn all its bombers from Fairford, while a statement from a Pentagon official yesterday confirmed the US was withdrawing the bombers:

It said: “While operational security precluded us from confirming the movement of our assets and forces in real-time, we can acknowledge now that all U.S. bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford have redeployed to their home stations in the United States.”

The British Ministry of Defence and the White House have not officially said why the bombers were being withdrawn.

The Wall Street Journal reported, “a decision made because of security concerns over suspected plots to attack the facility, American officials said Sunday.”

Bombers “rushed” out while Air Force scrambled tankers

According to The New York Times, the US “rushed” to withdraw the bombers over the weekend after commanders received new threats about an Iranian-backed plot. Bombers are vulnerable on the ground; most of the Russian bombers lost during the Ukraine war have been on the ground.

Some of the B-1B bombers took off while aerial refueling aircraft were still being scrambled to enable their crossing back to the United States. A small number of the bombers had only rotated into RAF Fairford from the United States in the past week.

The Pentagon confirms all B-1s have left RAF Fairford: While operational security precluded us from confirming the movement in real-time… we can acknowledge now that all U.S. bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford have re-deployed to their home stations in the U.S.

— Shelby Holliday (@shelbyholliday) October 4, 2026

The past week has seen a series of security developments surrounding RAF Fairford, including the evacuation of 85 homes, multiple arrests and an ongoing counter-terrorism investigation.

Investigation continues into RAF Fairford incident

A US official told the NY Times that it had been aware of threat warnings over the last three weeks, but that the specific details and a sense of urgency had spiked in the last 24 hours.

It remains unclear what those threats were. Last week, five men were arrested after suspicious white vans near the airbase. Officials later said that no explosives were found in the vans.

Another man, a dual British-Iranian national, was arrested on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts. All have since been released on bail pending further inquiries.