The unusual exodus of KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refueling jets from RAF Mildenhall in the U.K. continued on Tuesday. The movements, which began on Monday, are taking place as security levels at the installation have been raised, due to threats from Iran, acccording to The Wall Street Journal. TWZ was the first to report that Mildenhall and RAF Lakenheath were operating under enhanced security measures.
The departure of the KC-135s and increased security protocols are taking place a month after U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers hastily left RAF Fairford in the U.K. following a security incident connected to Iran.
Tuesday afternoon local time, a KC-135 Stratotanker, tail number 58-0095, took off from Mildenhall toward Germany, according to Flightradar24. A few hours later another KC-135, tail number 59-1464, also took off, according to the ADS-B exchange.
The flights were first noticed by the @DefenceGeek open-source flight tracker account on X. The departures on Tuesday followed those of 10 other KC-135s and three CV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft from Mildenhall on Monday, DefenceGeek noted on X. The tankers flew to Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany, Moron Air Base in Spain, Ramstein Air Base in Germany and Glasgow Prestwick International Airport in Scotland. The three CV-22s flew to RAF Lakenheath.
Why are the KC-135s leaving RAF Mildenhall?
When we asked about the repositioning of aircraft away from Mildenhall and the reported threats from Iran, the White House on Tuesday morning referred us to U.S. European Command (EUCOM). In a statement nearly identical to one we received Monday, the command declined to offer specifics about the aircraft movements or the increased security measures at Mildenhall and Lakenheath.
U.S. Air Forces in Europe – Air Forces Africa (USAFE) also declined to provide any details.
“For operational security reasons, we are unable to discuss specific force protection measures,” USAFE told us on Tuesday morning. “We constantly assess a variety of factors that determine what measures are implemented or modified. In close partnership with our host nation Ally, RAF Mildenhall remains vigilant. Together, we are taking coordinated and appropriate actions to ensure the safety and security of our U.S. service members, U.S. and host nation civilians, contractors, and all of our families. Protecting our shared community is a joint responsibility, and we encourage everyone to support this effort by reporting any unusual or suspicious activity to local authorities.”
As far as whether Iran threatened Mildenhall, USAFE said it would be “inappropriate to comment on matters of intelligence. We have nothing further to provide.”
As we noted at the top of this story, The Wall Street Journal on Monday night reported that the aircraft departures from RAF Mildenhall began after an unspecified threat from Iran.
“The precise nature of the threat to RAF Mildenhall—whether imminent or more general—remains under discussion among U.S. officials,” the newspaper wrote, citing its sources.
Security at both Mildenhall and Lakenheath was raised to Force Protection Condition Charlie (FPCON Charlie), the second-highest alert for U.S. military installations. FPCON Charlie applies when an incident occurs or intelligence is received indicating some form of terrorist action targeting personnel or facilities is likely.
TWZ cannot independently confirm The Wall Street Journal’s reporting. However, on Monday, a U.S. official told us that “enhanced force protection measures” were underway at Mildenhall and Lakenheath. The official did not say why.
Both installations are home to U.S. Air Force aircraft and are major hubs for transits to other regions, as we have noted in the past.
How serious is the reported threat to RAF Mildenhall and Lakenheath?
A spokesman for U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham told Reuters that the protection of Britain’s military bases was a top priority, and that the government worked closely with the police and allies to protect them.
“Security measures were kept under constant review and the government was investing more than £2 billion in air defense and counter-drone capabilities,” the spokesman said. Asked if he was confident that Britain’s bases were safe, he said: “Yes.”
A former commander of the 100th Air Refueling Wing, the host unit at Mildenhall, told us that it certainly appears that the hasty departure of all these aircraft “is based on a credible threat.”
“Now, how severe of a threat, we would never know in this medium,” retired Air Force Col. Troy Pananon told us. “The threat might not need to be significant to make a decision to move assets from varying locations.”
Pananon, who also served at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, called the departures from Mildenhall “atypical” and likened them to when “we routinely evacuated aircraft from MacDill for potential hurricane impact and projected paths.”
The Iranian threats to the two U.S. air bases in England were reported as efforts are underway to stave off a new round of attacks from the U.S., and likely Israel, against Iran.
On Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that for the moment, new combat operations are not imminent.
“I informed our partners – as we’ve been discussing with you and others – that at this point the economic campaign and the pressure and the devastation that our economic campaign is having on the Iranian regime is working so well that the President really doesn’t have any need to conduct major combat operations,” Rubio explained. “Now, obviously, if Iran crosses certain red lines, if their regime does certain things that should not happen – I’m not going to speculate what those are, but you know what they are – obviously the U.S. military, the most capable military in the world, stands ready to address it.”
What else has Iran been accused of in Europe?
The reported Iranian threats against the two U.K. air bases are not the only recent nefarious actions in Europe attributed to the Islamic Republic. Commercial refrigerators at grocery stores across France were hit by an Iranian cyber attack, French authorities claim.
“On 11 and 12 October, nearly 700 retail sites were targeted by a cyber campaign that was unprecedented in its scale and level of aggressiveness,” French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot stated on X Tuesday morning. “Today, thanks to the work of government services, we know who is responsible: the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran. The Ambassador of Iran has been summoned. We plan to sanction the perpetrators and take all the measures we deem necessary and proportionate to respond to these attacks and deter those who might consider carrying out further attacks.”
As we mentioned earlier in this piece, security concerns about bases in England hosting U.S. Air Force aircraft and personnel were raised following an incident at RAF Fairford in September.
Like Mildenhall and Lakenheath, RAF Fairford is a major hub for U.S. military aircraft in the United Kingdom. It is a regular host of strategic assets, including bombers and U-2 spy planes. It also acts as a pit stop for other aircraft, including fighters, that are being ferried to and from the United States. Bomber strikes launched from Fairford were a central aspect of major U.S. combat operations against Iran earlier this year.
In late September, five men were arrested on suspicion of driving bomb-laden vans toward it. They were soon released on bail after no explosives were found, but two men were later arrested, one of whom was “charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service, which police earlier said they believed to be Iran,” according to the BBC.
According to a new U.S. federal indictment handed up on Tuesday, the plot against Fairford was partly coordinated from an American jail.
Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, a dual Iranian-Iraqi national, Mohsen Mohajeri, an Iranian national and Mohammad Ali al-Hassani, an Iraqi national, “allegedly conspired to commit terrorist attacks in Europe and the United States on behalf of an Iran-aligned terrorist network, which included the IRGC and Kata’ib Hizballah,” the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced.
“Most recently, in approximately September 2026, al-Hassani allegedly orchestrated a terrorist plot at a British Royal Air Force Base (RAF Fairford) in Fairford, United Kingdom (the “RAF Fairford Terrorist Plot”), which at the time of the attempted attack, housed U.S. military aircraft and personnel,” according to DOJ.
“Al-Hassani and Mohajeri, both of whom were in Iran at the time of the RAF Fairford Terrorist Plot, allegedly relied on a network of contacts in the United Kingdom,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office added. “Al-Saadi, who was imprisoned and awaiting trial on pending terrorism charges in the Southern District of New York, attempted to coordinate with al-Hassani and Mohajeri from jail by passing coded messages through third parties.”
A week after the security incident, U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers that had been deployed to RAF Fairford in the U.K. since Operation Epic Fury returned to their home stations, a U.S. defense official confirmed to TWZ at the time. The hasty movement was reportedly sparked by new Iranian threats against the base. As we previously reported, Tehran directly threatened RAF Fairford in July over its use as a base to launch attacks against Iran.
We may never know what prompted the reported threats to Mildenhall and Lakenheath or exactly why so many aircraft were dispersed from Mildenhall in such a short period of time. We will provide the answers to those questions if and when we find them.
Contact the author: howard@twz.com
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