WSJ: US Evacuated Aircraft from RAF Mildenhall over Iran Threat

By Staff, Agencies 

The Wall Street Journal [WSJ] claimed that US military evacuated aircraft from a second airbase in ⁠Britain on Monday after a threat from Iran.

The daily cited people familiar with the matter, weeks after Washington withdrew its bombers from ⁠RAF Fairford airbase over ⁠a suspected Iran-linked security incident.

Two US refueling tankers that were using the RAF Mildenhall military base diverted to Germany earlier on Monday, while several other tankers at the base ⁠were moved to Germany and other locations later in the day, the WSJ report said.

“The US upgraded the security posture at RAF Mildenhall and RAF Lakenheath,” the report said, citing a US ‌official familiar with the ‌matter.

The posture was upgraded to Force Protection Condition [FPCON] Charlie, which is the second-highest defensive threat level in the US War Department of security system ‌and occurs when intelligence indicates that a form of terrorist action is likely.

“We do not routinely comment on the activity of other nations. Aircraft and other assets move regularly according to operational requirements,” a British Ministry of Defense spokesperson said.

A US Air Force spokesperson declined to provide the WSJ with details about the movement of assets, but told the daily that the US aircraft rotate between installations and operating locations for a variety of ‌reasons.

Reuters could not immediately reach the US Air Force, while the White House, the Pentagon and the US European Command did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours.

Five men were arrested outside RAF Fairford airbase in south-west England in September over a security incident with two others arrested later under the pretext of “assisting Iranian intelligence”.