American tanker aircraft have been moved out of RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk over a new reported Iran threat, flight-tracking data showed, as the United States tightened security at its British bases.
Aircraft leave the base
Flight-tracking data showed aircraft leaving RAF Mildenhall on November 10, days after the United States withdrew all of its B-1 bombers from RAF Fairford following the foiled September plot against that base. Drone no-fly zones were put over three Suffolk and Norfolk bases as the security alert widened.
The wider security picture
The move came in the same week that British police arrested a 41-year-old US Army officer near Gloucester on suspicion of spying for Russia, and that US prosecutors charged three men over the alleged Iran-backed plot at RAF Fairford. A senior intelligence official in the Trump administration warned in a memo seen by Reuters late last month that Iranian plots against US personnel and American citizens had reached an advanced stage.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has also moved from his Washington home to a military base after Iranian threats against his life, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.
What is confirmed
What is confirmed is that the United States withdrew its B-1 bombers from Fairford days after the September incident, in which three vans carrying fuel barrels were driven toward the base and recovered by British police. The Justice Department said on Tuesday that three men had been charged over the alleged plot, which prosecutors link to a wider campaign of nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks across Europe and the United States. Drone no-fly zones were also put over three Suffolk and Norfolk bases as the security alert widened, and the Fairford charges and the Mildenhall move together underline how seriously Washington is treating the threat to its forces in Britain.
