Four US bombers have landed at an RAF base in Britain to carry out “specific defensive operations” to stop Iran firing missiles into the Middle East, the Ministry of Defence has said.
The 146ft B-1 Lancers, which are capable of carrying 24 cruise missiles, arrived at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, one on Friday evening and three on Saturday morning, after Keir Starmer had granted permission for “defensive” US action against Iranian missile sites from UK bases.
The deployment comes days after Washington warned that strikes on Iran would “surge dramatically”.
The armed forces chief, Richard Knighton, said he expected the US to launch missions from the Gloucestershire base “within the next few days”. The prime minister agreed on Sunday to allow the US to strike Iran defensively from Fairford and Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos islands in the Indian Ocean.
On Saturday afternoon, the Ministry of Defence issued an update on its operations in the Middle East, which said the US had “started using British bases for specific defensive operations to prevent Iran firing missiles into the region”.
It added that a Merlin helicopter, which were previously described by the MoD as “submarine hunters”, was on the way to the Middle East to provide “additional airborne surveillance”.
The landing comes shortly after the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, warned on Thursday that strikes were “about to surge dramatically”, referring to “more fighter squadrons, more defensive capabilities and more bomber pulses more frequently”.
On Friday, Donald Trump demanded Iran’s unconditional surrender while Israeli warplanes bombed Tehran and Beirut and Iran launched another wave of retaliatory strikes against Israel and Gulf countries.
Starmer has defended his decision to block initial offensive strikes by the US and Israel at the weekend, saying he stood by his judgment and denying it had damaged the so-called special relationship. The move prompted Trump to launch a personal attack against the prime minister, saying that he was “not Winston Churchill”.
At a top secret national security council (NSC) meeting last Friday, Starmer’s suggestion to allow the US to use RAF bases to carry out defensive strikes was reportedly met with opposition from a number of cabinet ministers including Ed Miliband, Rachel Reeves, Yvette Cooper and Shabana Mahmood, according to the Spectator, in a report that was then picked up by several media outlets.
Starmer insisted that “all ministers” on the national security council had supported the UK position on the use of British bases, rejecting reports he had faced cabinet opposition led by Miliband. The Guardian understands, however, that all options were discussed at the NSC meeting on Friday.
On Saturday morning, Sadiq Khan said Starmer was “right to resist pressure” from the US to join strikes on Iran, and heavily criticised the “war of choice” that he said was “being waged unilaterally without any international consensus or UN approval, or any serious strategy as to what comes next”.
Starmer held a call with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, on Friday, in which the prime minister said the UK stood ready to help defend the country should it be needed.
It comes after he faced some criticism from Gulf states and Cyprus, where a drone evaded detection and hit RAF Akrotiri, for not doing enough to protect regional allies and British citizens there from Iranian strikes.
Air defence destroyer HMS Dragon is not expected to sail to the eastern Mediterranean until next week while France and Greece have already deployed military assets to defend Cyprus. One reason it is taking some time to prepare the Type 45 destroyer is because it is being equipped to remain at sea for several months if required, rather than rushed into the eastern Mediterranean for a short period.
The Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, is due to renew her attack on the UK’s response to the war in a speech on Saturday, when she is expected to say that “allies feel they can no longer rely on us”.
Badenoch sparked a row over her suggestion that UK military jets had been “just hanging around” and not taking the necessary action in the Middle East.
The former shadow foreign secretary Andrew Mitchell told Times Radio that Badenoch did not have “anything to apologise for” and that she had been making a point about ministers being slow to offer support to allies in the region.
A second government charter flight carrying British citizens from Oman landed at Gatwick on Saturday as efforts to help people trapped in the war zone continue.
The latest arrivals join about 6,500 Britons who have returned from the United Arab Emirates since widespread conflict began in the region.
