No10 insists RAF Fairford is safe after US withdraws bombers

Downing Street has insisted RAF Fairford remains safe after the United States withdrew its bomber aircraft from the Gloucestershire base. The Pentagon confirmed on Sunday that it had removed its bombers – believed to be about a dozen B‑1s – from the airfield and returned them to their home stations in the United States. US media reported that a newly identified threat prompted the withdrawal, which follows a significant incident on 27 September when police were alerted to three “suspicious vehicles” near the airbase. A Number 10 spokesperson said he would not comment on “foreign nations' military operations”, but stressed that the base was safe and cited remarks made by US President Donald Trump the previous week in which he “praised our police, defence and information services” in relation to the facility. He added that Defence Secretary Wes Streeting had said earlier that week, “we have tried and tested approaches to support our bases around the state and throughout the world”. RAF Fairford, located in the Cotswolds of Gloucestershire, is at the centre of an incident under investigation by counter‑terror police. Five men were initially arrested on suspicion of terror offences and later released on bail. A sixth man, a UK‑Iranian national, was also subsequently arrested and released on bail. Whitehall sources have not disputed that the decision from Washington to withdraw the bombers was a response to the incident at the Gloucestershire airfield. The BBC has also been told that the move was a military rather than a political decision, taken at an operational level and communicated from the US military to its British counterparts.