US pulls 12 B-1 bombers from RAF Fairford over suspected Iranian drone plot

UK law bars military from disabling drones in public, leaving bases exposed

A dozen B-1 bombers were abruptly flown out of RAF Fairford after U.S. officials said they had intelligence that Iran was plotting to target the aircraft with drones and other devices, The Wall Street Journal reported. According to the WSJ, fears spiked after five men were arrested in the woods next to Fairford last month on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack.

“We had an idea that there might be a threat, so why would I leave them there?” President Trump told reporters earlier this week, after the aircraft had left the base, according to the WSJ. U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said there are indications Iran was involved, the WSJ reported.

The withdrawal exposed a structural gap in British defenses. U.K. law allows only police and prison officers to jam or bring down a drone in a public space, so until a drone has entered the confines of a military base, military personnel alone cannot halt it, the WSJ reported. Drones can now be built to use cellphone networks or fiber optic cables to evade the traditional jamming of radio frequencies used by police. “The Russians, and highly likely the Iranians, have identified that as a potent gap,” Mike Monnik, chief executive of the company DroneSec, told the WSJ. Whether Iran had the ability to pull off such an attack isn’t clear, according to the WSJ.

The U.K. government says its bases are safe and is in the process of changing the law so that military personnel guarding bases can track, jam, and shoot down drones from outside base perimeters, the WSJ reported. It has also announced £470 million, or about $620 million, of investment in extra security for military bases.

The 146-feet-long B-1 bombers parked at RAF Fairford made a uniquely attractive target, the WSJ reported. The U.S. fleet numbers about 45 in total, and each bomber cost several hundred million dollars. Until recently, a dozen were sitting in the open at the air base, just northwest of London. Unlike jet fighters, they are too large to be easily stored in a hangar or hardened shelter.

The vulnerability extends well beyond Fairford. The Pentagon is re-evaluating its entire footprint in the Middle East after Iranian attacks against America’s naval base in Bahrain, along with drone and missile hits to at least 20 U.S. sites across the region including military and diplomatic facilities, the WSJ reported. The U.S. main air-war command center for the Middle East, located in Qatar, was largely destroyed. U.S. bases in Germany, Italy, and Spain could also be vulnerable, the WSJ reported, putting at risk the Pentagon’s hope of using Europe as a “power projection” platform for military interventions elsewhere. Drone incursion fears extend to the U.S. homeland. In March, small drones flew over Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, home to many B-52 bombers and the Global Strike Command, which oversees America’s bomber fleet and intercontinental ballistic missiles. A brief shelter-in-place order was given because of the incursions, but no attacks were carried out.

The U.S. Air Force has said it is investing in new counterdrone systems and will train specialists to operate them. Defensive efforts are now “a core function of air and space power,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach said earlier this month, according to the WSJ.

The U.K. has logged a sharp rise in drone incidents. There were more than 250 drone incidents near U.K. military sites in 2025, double the number in 2024, according to the Ministry of Defence, the WSJ reported. In 2024, unexplained drones were spotted flying near U.S.-used bases at RAF Lakenheath, RAF Mildenhall, and RAF Fairford. The drones flew in groups of up to 20, with some flying low over runway approaches. RAF Lakenheath houses the U.S. Air Force’s fourth-generation and fifth-generation jet fighters, and RAF Mildenhall is the base for the U.S. Air Force’s 100th Air Refueling Wing. The U.K. military deployed drone-jamming teams to the bases, including the Orcus antidrone system, which can remotely take control of an enemy drone. A report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies concluded the drones were likely flown from ships in the North Sea by Russia.

Tension escalated this summer after Germany accused Russia of being behind a plot to send explosive drones to an airport in Leipzig, the WSJ reported. German investigators found three custom-made drones involved in the failed attack — two in a field and one in the perimeter of the airport near Ukrainian-owned cargo planes — and said the drones could have been launched remotely.

Fairford has become the latest example of asymmetric warfare, the WSJ noted. The five balaclava-wearing men arrested near the base with three vans and barrels of fuel had not pulled off a sophisticated attack, but the U.S. response — pulling its bombers several thousand miles further back from any front line with Iran — could be seen as an inexpensive win for Tehran if it was behind the incident. The episode is, according to the WSJ, also a blow to the U.K.’s reputation: the U.S. has been launching heavy bombers from Fairford since World War II. Ukraine has demonstrated the potential of such asymmetric attacks, according to the WSJ. Ukraine claimed it damaged 41 Russian warplanes — valued at $7 billion — at four bases using drones that cost about $2,000 each. That operation, called “Spiderweb,” saw Ukraine smuggle drones into Russia and launch them remotely at air bases deep in Russian territory.

Security officials are skeptical that Iran could execute a plan akin to “Spiderweb,” given its terror track record in the U.K. consists mostly of hiring local criminals to attack dissidents or set fire to Jewish targets, the WSJ reported. Earlier this month, however, Luke Pollard, a minister in the U.K. defence department, told a conference panel that not enough investment had gone into protecting British military bases from drones.

“When we used to defend airfields, either you got bombed from a great distance or it was an insurgency coming through the wire,” Greg Bagwell, president of the U.K. Air & Space Power Association, told the WSJ. “Now we have something in between the two.”

At the moment, most of the weight is on intelligence services intercepting an attacker before they spring into action, the WSJ reported. The U.K. could deploy better drone-jamming technology, Monnik said, but more effective low-tech solutions are also available. Aircraft could be stored in hangars with doors that close. For large bombers, where inside storage may not be feasible, they could be based somewhere harder to reach. Greenland, for instance, could be an option.