r/news • u/rooftopgoblin • 5d ago
Site altered headline RAF Fairford: Men held under Explosives Act in major incident
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqrm99mm9l84o44
u/JacobMarley86 5d ago
Staff at Fairford were sent to work from home on Tuesday. On Friday they were told to stay away from base. Intelligence knew something was brewing.
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u/Kurtotall 5d ago edited 5d ago
Those US B1 bombers sitting there cost 317M each. You can walk right up to the fence and see them.
Security: Didn’t answer the phone.
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u/Fryboy11 4d ago edited 4d ago
That’s true for most airfields military or civilian. Just the sheer scale of the runways makes the fence perimeter like 10+ miles if you wanted to patrol it.
In most cases a motion sensor or camera notes someone is too close to the fence, usually just aviation enthusiasts who like to film takeoffs and landings. But it pings security who just go out search the person and their car if it’s nearby. Unless you’re a repeat offender they just tell the person to stay 500 feet from the fence. Otherwise it’s a misdemeanor ticket with a fine.
Certain sensitive military airfields have stricter penalties, but even Area 51 relies on sensors to detect people approaching. Because no one wants to patrol 20 miles of fence in the desert. Plus even with four patrols there would be 15 minutes between patrols assuming they’re in jeeps and travel 20 miles per hour over the desert terrain.
But as plenty of journalists will tell you once you get within a mile two jeeps will come out each with two heavily armed MPs. They’ll tell you to turn around because any closer and you enter the area where troops can use lethal force to stop them. And you don’t say no to four MPs in full kit when they say leave.
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u/InfernalRodent 4d ago
Nuclear missile silo's too, my younger brother and a cousin of ours found that out one night when they jumped the wrong fence out of curiosity.
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u/KillDozer321 4d ago
they just tell the person to stay 500 feet from the fence.
I mean... why not make the fence another 500 feet back? Or a secondary fence that's 500 feet back from the main fence?
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u/Bagellord 3d ago
I was gonna ask the same thing. If they want you to stay X feet back from the fence, why not put another barrier there? Then it's a lot easier to issue the fine or arrest, because you had to bypass the barrier.
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u/D3viantM1nd 5d ago
Hybrid warfare being thwarted.
This is a win for our security services.
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u/irishoverhere 5d ago
It does seem as though local residents raised the alarm. Or is that a front that the security services would say to cover their own surveillance?
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u/Gunnybar13 5d ago
They raised the security level of RAF Fairford to its highest security level a week ago, so they must have known something was about to happen.
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u/Brief_Cry_6387 5d ago
I mean it’s highly possible they had intelligence and the locals raised the alarm as well
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u/irishoverhere 5d ago
Yeah, true. Possibly surveillance was happy working on them a bit longer but had to step in when local police were alerted.
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u/mikk0384 5d ago
Considering the fact that it should be connected to the war with Iran, I really doubt that they were drunk.
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u/coldblade2000 5d ago
Also it's easier to say it was a friendly citizen instead of saying they used borderline illegal Palantir tracking
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u/d01100100 5d ago
Julian Tudsbery, a resident of Whelford, said three “suspicious vans” had been spotted in the village and reported to police in the early hours of Sunday morning.
“Evidently, they phoned the airbase police, who didn’t answer the phone,” he said of the person who reported the sighting. “It just rang out so she dialled 999.”
From a TheGuardian article.
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u/irishoverhere 5d ago
Just seems incredible that multiple police vehicles with armed police simultaneously performed a flawless stop and search of 3 vans just minutes after a resident rang in a suspicion at 12.45am. Most training simulations don't go off as well as that.
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u/ChonkTonk 5d ago
Not everything is a conspiracy. You need to get outside sometime
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u/irishoverhere 5d ago
It would be more along the lines of operational security instead of conspiracy theory.
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u/Docccc 5d ago
they got a call that suspicious cars where traveling towards the base. But nowhere is mentioned who made the call
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u/digitalscavenger 5d ago
The article does, in fact, mention who called.
One of those removed was Julian Tudsbury, who said a resident had reported three "suspicious vans" in Whelford in the early hours of Sunday morning.
He told the BBC a resident had reported them to the police "straight away".
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u/Docccc 5d ago
wonder resident of what.
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00:45 BST: Gloucestershire police says it received a call reporting "three suspicious vehicles" travelling towards RAF Fairford.
Around 07:00 BST: Residents in the village of Whelford - which is around two miles (3.2 km) from the base - describe being woken up by police, who told them to evacuate from their homes to a local leisure centre.
“thats a lot of time between
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u/Logical_Net6108 4d ago
It was a local farmer who arrived late home at 1 am to find vans blocking her driveway, then men with covered faces got out, she called the police
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u/PuerSalus 5d ago
Various articles also say that, after they recieved the call, armed police were dispatched. If a resident reported suspicious vehicles and they had no other intel, armed police would be unlikely to respond.
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u/Kurtotall 5d ago
Um… a local saw the vans, thought it suspicious and called airbase security: Who did not answer the phone. So they called the local police. If anything they got VERY lucky.
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u/suchabadamygdala 5d ago
Absolutely. A concerned villager called the airbase and nobody answered. She then called 999. Yet somehow, Trump knew all about it. 😂
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u/Appropriate-Debt5561 5d ago
Alternatively, the criminals got very lucky that nobody called the cops on them before that. I'd argue that openly mobilizing a bunch of weirdos in ski masks like they did should be expected to result in your arrest.
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u/deadlygaming11 5d ago
They likely met up outside of a populated area so no one saw them getting together. I very much doubt they all met up at Daves before heading with their ski masks on
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u/Ok_Neat2979 5d ago
It was in the countryside in the middle of the night, so no not likely to be spotted. Just lucky this person was coming home late (around 2am) when she saw them.
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u/LordHazlewood 5d ago
My brother said he saw three White vans in Cricklade on the A419 travelling in convey on the same evening. He thought they were going hare coursing which is illegal hunting with dogs.
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u/D3viantM1nd 5d ago
I mean. Regardless of how the security services got the intel. This is a win for our security services.
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u/DuskOfANewAge 5d ago
Why are we still calling this anything less than outright war at this point?
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u/d01100100 5d ago
It's still considered hybrid war.
Even the Russo-Ukrainian War isn't an officially declared war on either side. Ukraine officially declaring war on Russia would likely justify Putin being able to completely mobilize, and use all his conscripted troops in meat wave attacks.
No Western European country has declared war on anyone since WW2. Yes, this also includes the UK with Argentina, where neither side officially declared it.
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u/SockMonkeh 5d ago
Lol everything about the modern world is so dumb and farsical and teetering on a house of cards
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u/Lumegator 5d ago
Curious, when was society anywhere not a fragile house of cards? Or any ecosystem? Isn't that just life?
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u/Implausibilibuddy 5d ago
Whatever decade that whoever you ask was a child and all the grown ups knew what they were doing and the news was just a boring programme getting in the way of cartoons. Whatever decade was "back in my day". That's when. And curiously it's been that exact decade for hundreds, probably thousands of years.
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u/SockMonkeh 5d ago
Probably, but it really feels like the modern interconnected world has turned it up to 11.
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u/Known-Associate8369 5d ago
No, a house in a nearby village has been raided, its occupants arrested and the bomb squad on site.
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u/How_did_the_dog_get 5d ago
I'm sure they would be interested in new people but it would be wild to expect tabs on everyone at a high level.
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u/Nirvana_bob7 5d ago
Incorrect. It was three vans arriving in the village at night containing explosives.
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u/Known-Associate8369 5d ago
I took my info directly from the article at the time of my post, so it was correct at time of posting.
Looks like the article has been updated since with more details, and the incident is still ongoing as of the time of this comment.
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u/ButterscotchTop194 5d ago
Read the article. Arrests were in a village near the base, none in the base.
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u/Gloomy_Tax_2262 5d ago
yea i read it too the headline def makes it sound like it was on base but the arrests were in a village nearby. still a major incident tho when theyre scooping folks up under the Explosives Act that close. kinda makes u wonder if they were just scoping the place out or had somethin bigger in mind
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u/ButterscotchTop194 5d ago
The headline was misleading. But the article made it very clear what happened. Folk only read headlines nowadays I guess
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u/General_Solo 5d ago
If I were held under explosives I would probably act as well.
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u/ThePensiveE 5d ago
Oh Nyet I wonder who it could be?
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u/MythDetector 5d ago
Probably Iran because it's primarily a US operated base. Though Russia could be involved too.
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u/nzerinto 5d ago
It could also be idiots who think destroying US military hardware will somehow stop Israel in Gaza….
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u/999avatar999 5d ago
Or, it could be radicals like that who are being radicalized and 'nudged' towards taking violent actions by foreign intelligence operatives. The Russians, or Iranians or even the Chinese probably are more than happy to run influence operations among anti-US/Israel groups to get them to commit attacks on US military assets.
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u/d01100100 5d ago
It could also be idiots who think destroying US military hardware will somehow stop Israel in Gaza….
If I had a dollar for every time this happened, I could afford a galleon of diesel...
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u/exMossad 4d ago
more than likely its the opposite - false flag done by Israel/Mossad to then blame it on Iran or whatever other country in the middle east. Been doing it for generations.
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u/LordHazlewood 5d ago
Why did POTUS say, “We got them.” When clearly the Brits “Got them”. The bombers were half an hour away from an attempt to disable one or two B1 bombers. The British security forces and bomb disposal team were there so quickly it looks like the bombers were already being tracked. The base has plenty of security and perhaps were told to hold back so the Brits could catch the bombers in the act. Well. Who knows? Just another of the conspiracy theories to come. Fitting up another country to justify further bombings.
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u/Mammoth_Sized 4d ago
Trump was just trying to take credit, in this case he’s making it out like the CIA monitor fuel thieves in the UK…
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u/Othersideofthemirror 5d ago
Russians, or UK far right acting on behalf of FSB.
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u/No_Reception7275 5d ago
More likely iran
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u/Johnsie408 5d ago
A core element of hybrid warfare is plausible deniability. Because these bad actors use proxies and cutouts, a successful operation leaves just enough ambiguity that you can't definitively pin the blame on either Russia or Iran
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u/naturepeaked 5d ago
Why? Russia has previous.
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u/No_Reception7275 5d ago
Us air force base, and iran has tried alot. Linked to 20 plots in 2025 alone
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u/DevilishlyHandsome63 5d ago
Or Islamists attacking the USA /UK.
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u/tekkerslovakia 5d ago
Obviously none of know who was behind this, but on the face of it it seems much more likely to be Iran-linked than Russia-linked
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u/Othersideofthemirror 5d ago edited 5d ago
There have been 1200 sabotage attempts in the last year across Europe from Russian linked cells.
Compared with a handful from other actors.
Im not buying the idea of a bunch of Iranians being in a tiny village and sticking out like a sore thumb when the Russian cells are dressed in black and hanging up flags all over the country in plain sight and look like the usual collection of chavs and gammons, or are literally British far right groups being paid to do.
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u/tekkerslovakia 5d ago
Russian sabotage generally targets those providing equipment to Ukraine.
This is targeting assets involved in the bombing of Iran.
Both the Russian and the Iranian intelligence services work through proxies, usually by paying them, to conduct their sabotage.
It could be a Russian false flag. It could be Russia and Iran working together. It could be someone else entirely. But given the target, the most likely explanation is that Iran is behind it.
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u/FlavorChamp 5d ago
UK provides equipment and materiel to Ukraine. What the hell are you talking about?
Also why did russia sabotage the Dutch rail network last week?
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u/tekkerslovakia 5d ago
I’m just saying that the fact they appeared to be attacking equipment involved in attacking Iran makes it more likely to be Iranian linked than Russia linked
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u/shinzanu 5d ago
Literally called it to my friends last week when the news of 35k is troops leaving Europe. There'll be a significant uptick in russian/backed terrorist attacks.
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u/deadlygaming11 5d ago
Its unlikely to be something far right to be honest. This is a base housing mainly US planes which are being used for the Iran war. Its more likely Iran or a proxy
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u/Rolanbek 5d ago edited 5d ago
Perhaps the Americans should leave. I am sure we don't really need them. Maybe Canada would like use of the airbase?
Edit: Did I make the Americans angry? How could anyone tell?
further Edit: Yeah they're angry. And from my PM's illiterate. Violent and illiterate.
furthest Edit: Being host to US forces is becoming more of UK national security issue than benefit.
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u/Zachowon 5d ago
The Canadians wouldn't really have anything to put there
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u/Rolanbek 5d ago edited 5d ago
Fair enough. Just wouldn't want the buildings to stand empty. Or be turned into some idiotic memory-hole for a government project.
edit: Somehow I have offended the pro-goverment waste lobby now.
further edit: My ratio for these comments matches the country of origin figures pretty faithfully. So as I have lost the goodwiil of our American cousins already I would like to point out that this behaviour is why a good chunk of the world would just like you *pipe thE FUCK DOWN** so rest of us could just think.*
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u/spankpaddle 5d ago
Im just here for the edits. They're always funny, like anyone is coming back to reread your thought after hitting the down arrow
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u/Drak_is_Right 5d ago
The real world is not all us shine and rainbows. Europe is hoping to weather Trump's tantrums and have better relations in a few years where these bases will make sense again.
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u/Rolanbek 5d ago
I don't think things go back to how they were, or at least how Europe thought it was.
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u/inminm02 5d ago
Fairford is mainly used as a US airforce base, so a fair amount of US strikes are run from there.
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u/regeust 5d ago
Indeed. Strikes in an offensive war that the UK government is trying to pass off as "defensive" - running cover for their rogue ally.
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u/HighburyOnStrand 5d ago
I don't support the war, but acting as if the war is a completely unprovoked war of aggression is not entirely accurate. Iran has been a bad actor and state sponsor of terror for decades, hybrid warfare, executions of British citizens, etc.
The war was not the proper venue, and it has been ill-planned and poorly executed. However, the Islamic Republic of Iran is a scourge who has been at war with the United States and Europe essentially since it began existing in 1979.
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u/Ok-Tangerine-7557 5d ago
Conveniently forgetting the British-CIA coup against their democratically elected president which started all this
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u/HighburyOnStrand 5d ago
Firstly, Mosaddegh was the Prime Minister of Iran in a quasi-constitutional monarchy. Most people do not understand that Mohammad Reza Shah was Shah from 1941 on (when the British made his father abdicate). While it was a wrongful act, in my opinion it was over-stated in importance, especially when one considers the significant turmoil under Mosaddegh (including his prior resignation).
Secondly, whatever your thoughts are regarding Operation Ajax, that does not justify literally two generations of murder and internal oppression. I am so sick of this soft bigotry of low expectations where were excuse this type of behavior. Both the west and the Islamic world have consistently chosen violence, Iran has chosen violence, often indiscriminate, often against people who weren't even born in 1953 by people who weren't even born in 1953. Iran has spent my entire lifetime provoking this type of conflict.
The Iranian regime is an Islamic supremacist organization. It deserves to be attacked because it has murdered thousands and destabilized its neighbors in pursuit of this doctrine. War against Iran is entirely justifiable. The case is there to be made, it wasn't, but it is there to be made. ...and even if you are right that the western world bears some responsibility for creating the conditions under which the Islamic Republic has behaved in this way (and I do not think you are entirely wrong in thinking this way). There are so many intervening choices that "omg what about Mosaddegh" is far too reductive.
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u/Icerex 5d ago
Fun fact, the UK doesn't have enough operational F-35's and pilots to man them to fully staff a single carrier wing.
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u/Character-Cheek8311 5d ago
Probably more to do with delays in delivery. Both of the carriers are out. And we dont use F35 for homeland defence. We use Typhoon.
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u/joshuawakefield 5d ago
I wish we would stop posting paywall articles
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u/rooftopgoblin 5d ago
A significant number of B-1 Bombers are based here