{"id":226693,"date":"2026-10-06T12:11:36","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T12:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/iranian-drone-attack-threat-prompted-u-s-to-remove-bombers-from-british-air-base-officials-say-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T12:11:36","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T12:11:36","slug":"iranian-drone-attack-threat-prompted-u-s-to-remove-bombers-from-british-air-base-officials-say-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/iranian-drone-attack-threat-prompted-u-s-to-remove-bombers-from-british-air-base-officials-say-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Iranian drone attack threat prompted U.S. to remove bombers from British air base, officials say – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Morning Rundown: GOP floods midterms with $700 million in late ads, how Cornell frat brothers reacted to rape allegations, and Jim Bakker\u2019s tarnished legacy<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Air Force rushed over the weekend to return home <\/strong>its bombers stationed at RAF Fairford, a U.S.-run military air base in England used to strike Iran,<\/a> in part because of reports of a threat of a possible Iranian drone attack against the base and the American aircraft, two U.S. officials said Monday.
The two officials who spoke Monday could not say whether the Iranian threat was imminent. A third U.S. official said the U.S. can deploy the bombers from anywhere, so it made sense to move them out of an abundance of caution.
The move from RAF Fairford also <\/strong>came in the wake of an investigation into a possible planned terrorist attack at the base<\/a>.
A Defense Department official told NBC News that \u201call U.S. bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford have re-deployed to their home stations in the United States.\u201d
\u201cU.S. Air Force bombers routinely operate around the world to support global force readiness and operational requirements,\u201d the official said.
\u201cThe Airmen that operate America\u2019s bomber force, including B-1s, B-2s, and B-52s, remain ready to deliver precision global strike capabilities \u2014 including through operations that launch and recover from the continental United States \u2014 anywhere, anytime,\u201d the official added.
The rushed withdrawal of at least 12 bombers included several that had just arrived in the U.K. as part of a rotation to the air base, two Pentagon officials told NBC News.
Those officials said the hasty deployment back to the U.S. was not a response to a new or different threat to the U.K. base but rather part of the threat reporting that was already out there, without giving further detail.
The United Kingdom\u2019s Defense Ministry declined to comment on the matter Monday.
A dual British-Iranian national was arrested in central London last week<\/a> on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack following a security incident at RAF Fairford<\/a> in late September. In total, six people have been taken into custody and released on bail<\/a> during the investigation.
Last week, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham <\/a>said there were strong indications that Iran had played a part in the security incident.
\u201cWe have been waiting to confirm what we could say, but we can now confirm our belief that Iran played a part,\u201d he said in an interview<\/a>. \u201cThis remains, though, a complex and very serious police investigation, so I can\u2019t say any more at this stage.\u201d
Iran has denied involvement.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on X<\/a> that Burnham was wrongly accusing Tehran of having played a role in the incident. \u201cYou\u2019re barking up the wrong tree,\u201d Araghchi wrote.
Aviation watchers, such as the Military Air Tracking Alliance, have observed dozens of B-52 and B-1 bombers operating out of RAF Fairford since the opening days of the Iran war<\/a>. Observers noticed a host of B-1 bombers flying out of the base Sunday.
President Donald Trump is weighing options for his war on Iran \u2014 including new strikes \u2014 despite his initial promises to Americans that the campaign would last a matter of weeks<\/a>.
\u201cWe have decisions that I\u2019ll make about Iran. Iran\u2019s been decimated. So the only question is \u2014 it\u2019ll either be the easy way, or the hard way,\u201d Trump told reporters Saturday as he left the White House for a rally in Ohio.
American bombers have used the air base, 100 miles west of London, during decades of conflicts in the Middle East.
The U.S. military still maintains a sizable presence in the Middle East. On Thursday, a U.S. official said the recently deployed USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier and the USS Malkin Island amphibious readiness group \u2014 a group of ships that together carry over 7,000 sailors and 2,000 Marines \u2014 are heading for the region. The official said the move could have three carriers in the region as early as the end of October.
Courtney Kube is a correspondent covering national security and the military for the NBC News Investigative Unit.
Adela Suliman is a breaking-news editor and reporter for NBC News in London.
I am NBC News\u2019 producer & off-air reporter covering stories about and related to the Defense Department around the world.
The Associated Press
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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Morning Rundown: GOP floods midterms with $700 million in late ads, how Cornell frat brothers reacted to rape allegations, and Jim Bakker\u2019s tarnished legacy For YouSettings news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeWASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Air Force rushed over the weekend to return home its bombers stationed at RAF Fairford, a U.S.-run […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":226694,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-226693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}