U.S. carrier, amphibious group heading toward Middle East

B-1 bombers redeployed from RAF Fairford after alleged plot

The USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier and the USS Malkin Island amphibious readiness group — together carrying more than 7,000 sailors and 2,000 Marines — are heading toward the Middle East, a U.S. official said Thursday. The official said the move could result in three carriers being in the region as early as the end of October. The U.S. military still maintains a sizeable presence in the Middle East.

The carrier deployment comes as the U.S. Air Force pulled all B-1 bombers from RAF Fairford back to home stations in the United States, a Pentagon spokesperson said Sunday, following an investigation into an alleged planned terror attack at the Gloucestershire base.

A Pentagon spokesperson said in a statement Sunday: “While operational security precluded us from confirming the movement of our assets and forces in real time, we can acknowledge now that all US bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford have re-deployed to their home stations in the United States.”

At least 10 of the 12 B-1 bombers at the base departed Sunday, including some that had arrived on rotation less than a week earlier, underlining the haste of the withdrawal. There was no immediate comment from the UK Ministry of Defence.

The New York Times reported Sunday that “American officials on Sunday declined to specify the nature of the new information that prompted the rapid withdrawal of the Air Force bombers, some of which had just arrived in the past week as part of a normal rotation of forces.” One U.S. official told the Times that “the new information was part of the same threat warnings that surfaced three weeks ago, but specific details and a sense of urgency spiked in the past 24 hours, alarming commanders.”

The redeployment follows the arrest last week of a dual British-Iranian national in central London on suspicion of plotting a terror attack. A security incident occurred at RAF Fairford in late September. In total, six people have been taken into custody during the investigation and then released on bail.

British authorities have linked the incident to Tehran. Iran has denied involvement.

RAF Fairford, located 100 miles west of London, has been used by American bombers during decades of conflicts in the Middle East. The base has hosted U.S. bombers in recent months after former Prime Minister Keir Starmer granted Washington permission to use British bases for strikes described as “defensive” against Tehran.