Key facts
- Two US refuelling tankers at RAF Mildenhall diverted to Germany on November 9, the Wall Street Journal reported.
- Several other tankers at the Suffolk base were moved to Germany and other locations later that day, it said.
- The newspaper, citing US officials, said the moves responded to a threat from Iran.
- The Ministry of Defence told the BBC it does not routinely comment on the activity of other nations.
- Education secretary Lucy Powell said she could not comment on operational matters but that UK bases' security is taken seriously.
- Lord Ricketts, former UK National Security Adviser, said large tanker aircraft at an airbase are inevitably vulnerable.
Several US military aircraft left a second airbase in Britain on November 9, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Two US refuelling tankers using RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk diverted to Germany earlier that day, while several other tankers at the base were moved to Germany and other locations later, the newspaper reported, citing US officials.
The Wall Street Journal said the moves were made in response to a threat from Iran. The report follows the US withdrawal of its bombers from RAF Fairford airbase weeks earlier over a suspected Iran-linked security incident.
An MoD spokesperson told the BBC: "We do not routinely comment on the activity of other nations. Aircraft and other assets move regularly according to operational requirements." Asked about aircraft leaving RAF Mildenhall, education secretary Lucy Powell told BBC Breakfast: "Obviously I can't comment on ongoing operational matters but rest assured that we take the security and safety of our bases incredibly seriously and we will always act on security intelligence when we need to."
Lord Ricketts, former UK National Security Adviser, said on BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We are talking about an airbase which houses these large tanker aircraft. Of course, they are large targets, an airbase has a long perimeter, so they are inevitably vulnerable." He added: "Nobody knows at this stage what this information was. I suspect part of it is an abundance of caution."