LONDON: President Donald Trump said the U.S. moved its bombers out of RAF Fairford because of "some threats" to the base, confirming reports that a security incident led to the aircraft's withdrawal.
The Pentagon confirmed Sunday it had removed about a dozen B-1 bombers from the British airbase back to their home stations in the United States.
Speaking to reporters Monday before departing for Nebraska, Trump said the U.S. had known of a "threat" that prompted the move. Asked whether a specific threat led to the withdrawal, he replied: "Yeah, I think we can say that. They didn't fly out by accident."
"There were some threats," Trump said. "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."
He added that Washington "actually knows the people that made the threat" but did not identify them.
The exact nature of the threat remains unclear. Sources in Washington speculated to the BBC it might have involved sabotage attempts or efforts to strike the sensitive, expensive aircraft in the event of resumed hostilities with Iran. One source close to the White House pointed to Ukraine's Operation Spiderweb — a covert drone attack on five Russian bases in June last year — as an example of what an enemy force could do even at a distance.
"Whatever they thought it was, it was taken extremely seriously," the source said.
The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Axios reported that the potential attack may have been designed to target the aircraft and kill personnel, citing unnamed officials.
The withdrawal followed a major incident on Sept. 27 when police were alerted to three "suspicious vehicles" near the airbase. Five men were initially arrested on suspicion of terror offenses and subsequently released on bail. A sixth man, a UK-Iranian national, was later arrested and released on bail.
Following the release of the first five men, Trump criticized the decision, and U.S. officials suggested Iran could have been involved. Whitehall sources have not disputed that Washington's decision to remove the bombers was in response to the incident.
Trump's comments stand in contrast to those of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was more guarded. Rubio said he would not directly tie last week's incident to the decision to pull bombers from RAF Fairford.
"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, adding that the U.S. still had full confidence in the security of all its bases.
Vice President JD Vance later said the bombers had been moved out of an "abundance of caution," adding that Washington felt 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."
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said days after the incident there were "strong indications" Iran had played a part, but he did not provide further details. Rubio said it had "clearly involve[d] the hands of a foreign actor" without elaborating. 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 in Gloucestershire, has been used as a forward operating location by the U.S. Air Force for decades. In recent months, the U.S. has flown B-1 and B-52 bombers from the base for the Middle East after the UK approved a U.S. request to use it for defensive strikes on Iran.
The redeployment will reduce America's capacity to "quickly surge sorties against Iran, reducing the threat level somewhat," Christoph Bergs, a research analyst at the Royal United Services Institute, told Reuters. However, the base's use had already been limited by London's stipulation that it be used only for defensive strikes, he added.
The planes could potentially be sent to Diego Garcia or bases in the Gulf to reduce the need for air-to-air refueling, but that would depend on capacity, negotiations with allies and security, Bergs said.
