Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / US pulls all bombers from UK base after new threat

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US pulls all bombers from UK base after new threat · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Big questions swirling right now around a sudden military move.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: This morning, all of the US Air Force long-range bombers
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: that were stationed at an air base in the UK
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: are now back in the United States. According to a
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: US official, they were flown out suddenly after an unspecified
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: new threat. And this comes just days after Five people
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: were arrested in connection with an alleged Iranian plot to
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: target that same airbase in the UK. They were later
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: released on bail. And a sixth man was arrested last
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: week as well, was also released. A source familiar with
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: the situation tells CNN that the latest threat is a
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: quote-unquote real-world incident. CNN's Matthew Chance is tracking this one
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: from London. And Matthew, there just seems to be a
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: lot of questions around why, why so suddenly, and what
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  Speaker 1: we really know about it. What are you picking up?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of questions why it happened. Unfortunately, no
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: really good answers at the moment. I've just got off
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  Speaker 2: the phone with the British Ministry of Defence, and they've
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: just flatly refused to comment, saying we don't comment on
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: the operations and the capabilities of other nations, which seems
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  Speaker 2: extremely odd, given that this is one of the main
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  Speaker 2: US air bases on British soil. Absolutely paramount, not just
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: to the British military alliance with the United States, which
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: is longstanding, but also important to America's ability to project power,
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: for instance, well, globally, but for instance, into the Middle East.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: Fairford is the base which these B1 bombers, a dozen
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: or so of which have now been sort of quickly
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  Speaker 2: evacuated from the airstrip back to their home bases in
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  Speaker 2: the United States. It's been used to strike Iran since
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  Speaker 2: the beginning of the Iran war. It's the main sort
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  Speaker 2: of forward operating base for that kind of sort of
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  Speaker 2: operation that the U.S. has been conducting. It can still
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: do that sort of thing from other bases and, of course,
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: from the continental United States. But, you know, it's going
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  Speaker 2: to be logistically much more difficult without that base at
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  Speaker 2: Fairford from which to launch attacks from and to return to.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: So that's really problematic. The British state broadcaster here has said, look,
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  Speaker 2: you know, this was a military, not a political decision
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  Speaker 2: to move these jets out of here. It doesn't seem
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: to have been a sort of a sort of an
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  Speaker 2: act of frustration or anger on the part of the
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  Speaker 2: Trump administration. At least that's what the indications are at
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  Speaker 2: the moment, although we'll wait to see what President Trump
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: and other members of the White House team have to
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  Speaker 2: say on it later on today. What is interesting, though,
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  Speaker 2: is that these jets appear from local reports here in
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  Speaker 2: Britain to have been scrambled. It's not a sort of
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: planned evacuation. There seems to have been a new sort
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  Speaker 2: of intelligence report, a real world incident, as you mentioned,
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: which was as it was described to us by U.S. officials.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: which led to these planes quickly being scrambled and taking off.
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  Speaker 2: Local media here saying even before the refueling tankers had
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: got into the air to allow them to refuel to
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: get back to the United States. So we're waiting to
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: see what it was that caused this kind of panic
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  Speaker 2: evacuation of these U.S. strategic bombers.
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  Speaker 3: CNN military analyst and retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Layton
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  Speaker 3: joins us now. So we were talking about it a
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  Speaker 3: little bit earlier, but can you just characterize for us
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  Speaker 3: the significance of this action here?
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Omar, absolutely. There were 12 B-1 bombers that were
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  Speaker 4: deployed to RAF Fairford, which is that forward operating base
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  Speaker 4: that has been used against Iran in the Iran war.
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  Speaker 4: And the decision was made to move these aircraft away
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  Speaker 4: from RAF Fairford back to their home stations in the
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  Speaker 4: continental United States. because of threats that were seen through
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  Speaker 4: intelligence and law enforcement channels to be credible against RAF Fairford,
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: the installation, but particularly against these aircraft. And as we're
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: showing here, the B-1 bomber is the aircraft in question.
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  Speaker 4: This particular aircraft, as well as B-52s like this one
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  Speaker 4: and the B-1s again, they are critical to our ability
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  Speaker 4: to project power. And B-1, for example, is a long-range bomber.
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  Speaker 4: It has been designed to carry ordnance a long distance,
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  Speaker 4: in many cases an intercontinental distance. And one of the
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  Speaker 4: things that we do is to preposition these aircraft in
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  Speaker 4: locations like the United Kingdom, so that they get there,
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  Speaker 4: get to their target area, which in this case was
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  Speaker 4: the Middle East, at a quicker time than they would
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  Speaker 4: if they had to come from the United States itself.
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  Speaker 4: So what this redeployment of these aircraft does, Omar, is
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  Speaker 4: it takes these aircraft back out of England, moves them
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: back to the United States. And it also makes it
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  Speaker 4: longer if these aircraft are going to be used in
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  Speaker 4: any future efforts in the Middle East, any future combat
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  Speaker 4: operations in the Middle East. It'll take longer for them
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  Speaker 4: to get there just because of the geography, the geographic
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  Speaker 4: distance involved.
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  Speaker 3: How much under threat have these forward operating locations and
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: bases been for the United States throughout this Iran war?
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  Speaker 4: Well, they've been under some degree of threat. It was
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  Speaker 4: considered a safe area up until recently. But bases in
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  Speaker 4: the U.K. have often been under surveillance. And Iranian sleeper
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  Speaker 4: cells are active in the United Kingdom. These sleeper cells
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  Speaker 4: are basically intelligence-gathering efforts by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps
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  Speaker 4: and other elements of the Iranian regime. And what they
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  Speaker 4: do is they can collect both intelligence as well as
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  Speaker 4: conduct potential sabotage operations. And the big fear in this
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  Speaker 4: particular case was that they would actually be conducting some
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  Speaker 4: kind of sabotage operation, which would have been directed not
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  Speaker 4: just against the base itself, but against these aircraft, because
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  Speaker 4: they can be seen directly from the perimeter of the base.
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  Speaker 4: You can see these B-1s when they're deployed there. And
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  Speaker 4: it's not a big distance from a perimeter road to
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: actually strike these aircraft with an RPG or anything like that.
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  Speaker 4: So I think they took a prudent course of action
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  Speaker 4: in this particular case to bring these aircraft out of
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  Speaker 4: potential harm's way.
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  Speaker 3: I want to bring in CNN National Security Analyst Alex Plitsas.
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  Speaker 3: He's also the director of the Counterterrorism Project at the
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: Atlantic Council. So, Alex, how unusual is this move? What
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: are you taking away from this?
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: It's unusual in the sense that we did move all
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  Speaker 5: of our aircraft from the base. There was probably several
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  Speaker 5: dozen bombers there plus that were been there deployed for
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  Speaker 5: quite some time. So it speaks to the credibility and
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  Speaker 5: the seriousness of the threat overall to the base that
• 6:43
  Speaker 5: we're talking about. But this also didn't happen in a vacuum.
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  Speaker 5: So at the same time, the bombers were sent home.
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  Speaker 5: What hasn't been as well publicized is. Of the two
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  Speaker 5: aircraft carriers that have been on station outside of Iran,
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  Speaker 5: the Bush has been basically moving towards a port call
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  Speaker 5: and will be out of the region for quite some time,
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  Speaker 5: leaving only one aircraft carrier there with the third one
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  Speaker 5: still inbound. So it's still several weeks until that second
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  Speaker 5: carrier will return, plus the third. And in the face
• 7:08
  Speaker 5: of the ongoing threat, plus the long deployment of bombers,
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  Speaker 5: in the face of that threat, it makes sense to
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  Speaker 5: redeploy those forces for right now for R & R
• 7:14
  Speaker 5: back at home in the event that they're needed. they'll
• 7:16
  Speaker 5: be redeployed or some other platforms will be redeployed if
• 7:19
  Speaker 5: the president decides that they need to commence combat operations
• 7:22
  Speaker 5: against Iran again, which he has threatened to do and
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  Speaker 5: potentially signal after the midterms if the Iranians don't come
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  Speaker 5: to the table to make a deal in good faith.
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  Speaker 3: How critical would you say is this base for the
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: United States? Just contextualize this for us. And what does
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  Speaker 3: this move mean for the safety of U.S.
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  Speaker 5: Troops overseas?
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: Sure.
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  Speaker 5: So there's only so many bases that have runways long
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  Speaker 5: enough to host these long range strategic bombers. And there's
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  Speaker 5: only so many governments willing to host them, given the
• 7:49
  Speaker 5: fact that offensive operations against Iran are not supported by
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: all governments nationwide where we have bases. And so that
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  Speaker 5: limits options. We've also seen Iran successfully target U.S. bases
• 8:00
  Speaker 5: throughout the region. And many of the European allies have
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: said that we can't use bases to launch from. So
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  Speaker 5: It is a problem in the sense that it limits
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  Speaker 5: the number of bases that are available in the area.
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  Speaker 5: These planes obviously can fly long distances with aerial refueling,
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  Speaker 5: but that takes wear and tear on the aircraft flying
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  Speaker 5: back and forth from the U.S. would add a lot
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  Speaker 5: of time onto this. So it does add operational difficulties.
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  Speaker 5: But then again, this is a move right now. We
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  Speaker 5: don't know if this is a short-term or long-term move,
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  Speaker 5: but we'll see the implications in the coming weeks, depending
• 8:28
  Speaker 5: on whether or not the U.S. and Iran are able
• 8:29
  Speaker 5: to reach a deal.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: You know, the Royal Air Force Base at Fairford has
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  Speaker 3: been used, as we've been talking about, to deploy U.S.
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  Speaker 3: B-1 bombers involved in the war against Iran and is
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  Speaker 3: a forward operating location for U.S. Global Strike Command. And
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: while we're still trying to figure out what this new
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: unspecified threat is, it is still resulting in the moving
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  Speaker 3: of U.S. military bombers here, as we've been talking about.
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  Speaker 3: Do you think Iran sees this as a win?
• 9:03
  Speaker 5: I think Iran will certainly message it as a win.
• 9:05
  Speaker 5: I think from the reality of the situation, this is
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  Speaker 5: a precautionary measure because they're not needed at the moment.
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  Speaker 5: It's pretty clear, again, based on the carrier movements and
• 9:12
  Speaker 5: everything else, that hostilities are not imminent. They're not going
• 9:15
  Speaker 5: to start in the next couple of weeks. And that's
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: not because we have some access to some planning that
• 9:19
  Speaker 5: we're not supposed to have here at the network. It's
• 9:21
  Speaker 5: because the force posture speaks to it. The carriers are
• 9:23
  Speaker 5: being moved. The bombers are being redeployed. And if we
• 9:25
  Speaker 5: look at the number of tankers that are out there,
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: it's significantly less than when the war was going on.
• 9:29
  Speaker 5: So the US has not redeployed those forces in significant numbers.
• 9:33
  Speaker 5: So it would make sense if there's a threat and
• 9:35
  Speaker 5: they're not needed at the moment to send them back
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  Speaker 5: just to make sure that they're safe. There's no reason
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  Speaker 5: to keep them there if they're not needed under a threat.
• 9:40
  Speaker 5: But yes, the Iranians will certainly message this as a
• 9:43
  Speaker 5: point on their side. And speaking to British officials, you know,
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  Speaker 5: there is definitely a nexus to Iran with the threats
• 9:48
  Speaker 5: that have taken place. The law enforcement authorities in the
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: UK are still taking the lead on this. And that's
• 9:53
  Speaker 5: really important, I'm told, for my motive to also mapping
• 9:55
  Speaker 5: this out, because we're talking about a nation state potentially conducting,
• 9:59
  Speaker 5: you know, what would be, you know, an act of war,
• 10:01
  Speaker 5: an act of terrorism. The difference is terrorism is politically
• 10:04
  Speaker 5: motivated violence against civilians. This would be attack on a
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: UK military base and against US and UK military forces.
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: It's actually an attack against the state entity, not necessarily
• 10:12
  Speaker 5: an act of terrorism. The designation means something. That would
• 10:15
  Speaker 5: draw a response from the U.K. if that's the case.
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  Speaker 5: And so I believe the U.K. government is working hard
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: to make sure that they get this absolutely correct, airtight,
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: so that the policy response is appropriate, but also that
• 10:25
  Speaker 5: these individuals are charged and that these criminal charges stick if,
• 10:28
  Speaker 5: in fact, that's what the case was.
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: Alex Plitsis, really appreciate the perspective.
• 10:34
  Speaker 5: Thanks for being here.