The US Air Force pulled all 12 of its B-1B Lancer bombers out of RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, England, over the weekend after commanders received new intelligence about a possible drone attack on the base ordered by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to US and British officials who spoke to The New York Times. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, and the Pentagon said the bombers have returned to their home stations in the United States.

Vice President JD Vance confirmed the move on Monday and accused Iran of plotting attacks against the United States. Several hundred US personnel are stationed at Fairford, and American bombers have flown from it in the US-Israeli war against Iran, which began on February 28.

The pullout came a week after British police arrested five men following reports of three white vans near the base in the early hours of September 27. Police found petrol in the vans but no explosives, and all five were released on bail without charge the next day.

The Fairford Arrests Brought an Evacuation, a Cobra Meeting and a Sixth Suspect

Counter-terrorism police held the five London-based men, aged 23 to 25, under the Explosives Act and then on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts. About 85 homes in Whelford were evacuated while a bomb-disposal robot searched the vans. Prime Minister Andy Burnham chaired a Cobra meeting on September 28.

A local farmer raised the alarm after seeing the vans and a large group of hooded or masked people near them. She later estimated that eight to 10 people were there, IBTimes UK reported, and police had not confirmed that anyone beyond the five was at the scene. On October 1, officers arrested a 25-year-old dual UK-Iranian national in London on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts, Reuters reported.

Vicki Evans, the senior national coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, said investigators were looking at possible foreign state involvement. IBTimes UK reported that they are examining whether the five acted for a foreign state, knowingly or unknowingly, and that no such connection has been established. Burnham said last week that the government believes Iran played a part in planning the events that led to the arrests. Iran denies any role and summoned the British ambassador in Tehran in protest.

In July, the Revolutionary Guards warned in a statement that letting the US use Fairford “makes London responsible” for US actions. The statement called any base used to launch attacks on Iranian territory a legitimate target for its forces.

Some Officials Believe the Plot Was Loosely Modeled on Ukraine’s Spiderweb Raid

Officials told The New York Times the suspected attack was part of a multipronged Iranian plot to strike aircraft at Fairford and kill some of the Americans stationed there. Some believe it was loosely modeled on Operation Spiderweb, Ukraine’s 2025 raid that launched drones from trucks near Russian airbases.

None of the reports DroneXL reviewed for this story says drones were found in the vans or that the arrested men are suspected of a drone plot, and no one has been charged. The Times puts Spiderweb’s toll at a dozen or more aircraft destroyed or damaged, many of them nuclear-capable strategic bombers. When DroneXL covered the raid on June 1, 2025, a Ukrainian security official told Reuters the drones had hit more than 40 Russian warplanes.

US commanders received a warning in mid-September from American and other Western intelligence agencies that Fairford was the target of a potential Iran-backed attack, according to US officials briefed on it. One official said the new information belonged to the same set of warnings, but the sense of urgency spiked over the weekend. Some B-1s and their crews left while the tankers meant to refuel them on the way home were still deploying. “Out of an abundance of caution trying to protect our guys,” Vance said of the move.

A senior US official told the Times that Israel also warned Germany that American bases there faced heightened risk, naming Spangdahlem and Ramstein air bases. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the drone threat as the reason for the withdrawal, the Times noted, and the Pentagon told Al Jazeera that every bomber deployed to Fairford had gone home.

On Monday, Burnham’s spokesman declined to comment on other nations’ military operations. Asked whether the base was safe, he said yes and pointed to Defence Secretary Wes Streeting’s statement last week describing “tried and tested approaches to defend our bases around the country.”

DroneXL’s Take

None of the reports DroneXL reviewed describes a drone flown at Fairford in this plot, yet the US sent 12 bombers across the Atlantic in a weekend. Ukraine had to fly its drones to wreck Russia’s bombers. On the officials’ account, the threat alone was enough to clear the base.

I don’t think Streeting’s “tried and tested approaches” survive a look at the record. When DroneXL reported 340 drone incidents at UK military sites on September 19, British troops still had no general legal power to bring down a drone over their own bases, and the Armed Forces Bill that would give them one was waiting at Lords report stage. Drone incursions were reported at Fairford and three other American-run stations in November 2024, and a STRATCOM official called Spiderweb “utterly eye-opening” in August. Neither government can say this threat arrived without notice. My read is that a pullout this rushed, from a base Downing Street says is safe, tells you more about Washington’s confidence in those defenses than any statement has.

If aircraft start leaving Ramstein or Spangdahlem on a similar warning, I’d take it as proof that NATO still has no defense against small drones at its bases that it trusts.

Sources: The New York Times, Reuters, Al Jazeera, Euronews, IBTimes UK, The Wall Street Journal (as cited by The New York Times).

DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo. Read our editorial standards.