US bombers land in Britain as Pentagon prepares 'surge' in Iran strikes
Three US Air Force B-1 Lancer bombers have landed at the Royal Air Force Fairford base in Gloucestershire, southern England, as the Pentagon prepares for a new "surge" in strikes against Iran.
A B-1 bomber arrived at the British airbase on Friday evening, with two more landing on Saturday morning. Gloucestershire is expected to see a further stream of US aircraft arriving in the coming week.
B-1 bombers cost up to $2bn each and can carry 24 cruise missiles, allowing them to execute long-range missions without detection.
According to the US Air Force, they can "rapidly deliver massive quantities of precision and non-precision weapons against any adversary, anywhere in the world, at any time".
Separately, a C-5 Galaxy cargo plane arrived at the base on Friday, the largest aircraft in the US military’s fleet.
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War Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday that the US would use British bases to "dramatically" increase its strikes on Iran.
"When we say more to come, it's more fighter squadrons, it's more capabilities, it's more defensive capabilities, and it's more bomber pulses more frequently," he announced.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Sunday that the US would be allowed to use UK military bases for the purpose of targeting Iranian missile sites.
He was attacked by US President Donald Trump as being "unhelpful" and "no Winston Churchill" after initially blocking the US from using the joint UK-US base on Diego Garcia in the Chagos Archipelago to strike Iran.
UK refuses to rule out further involvement in war
The arrival of US bombers in Gloucestershire comes despite a lack of support among the British public for involvement in the war with Iran.
YouGov polling this week showed Britons oppose US military action against Iran by 49 percent to 28 percent.
Exactly half of the public also opposes the government allowing the US to use British airbases, with only 30 percent supporting the move.
However, British Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy on Friday refused to rule out the UK deepening its participation in the war.
Lammy said it would be "entirely legal" for the British military to directly strike Iranian missile depots and launchers.
He added that the UK had the satellite and intelligence capabilities to identify Iranian missile sites.
Lammy also mistakenly referred to a Typhoon jet as a "tycoon" and falsely said that Cyprus "is a Nato ally".
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) revealed earlier this week that a drone which hit Britain's RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus was not launched from Iran, as many had initially assumed.
The MoD said it believes the drone was launched from Lebanon or Iraq, though an investigation has been unable to conclusively establish the origin.
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