President Donald Trump announced Monday that the United States had moved its bombers from Royal Air Force Fairford in England back to their home stations in America due to unspecified "threats" to the base. The Pentagon confirmed the bombers' redeployment on Sunday.
Speaking to reporters before departing the White House, Trump stated, "And rather than tempting the enemy, we'll capture the enemy and beat the enemy." He added that Washington "actually knows the people that made the threat," but did not identify them.
Whitehall sources have not disputed that the decision to remove the bombers was a response to an incident at the airbase in Gloucestershire. The base has been the subject of an investigation by counter-terror police following an alert on September 27 about three "suspicious vehicles" near the airbase. Five men were initially arrested on suspicion of terror offenses and later released on bail. A sixth individual, a UK-Iranian national, was also arrested and subsequently released on bail.
Following the release of the initial five men, Trump criticized the decision. U.S. officials suggested Iran could have been involved in the incident. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated Sunday that he would not directly tie the September incident to the bomber removal, noting that "It's not unusual to see movement of assets to different parts of the world based on exercises, redeployments." He also affirmed the U.S. has "full confidence in the security of all its bases" and that British authorities have been cooperative.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance later commented that the bombers were moved out of an "abundance of caution," expressing concerns that Iran continues to "engage in acts of terrorism against the US and against a lot of other people."