AILSA CHANG, HOST:
There's an airbase in the U.K. that's been in the news a bit. Today, British police say they have made a seventh arrest in a murky plot that targeted this space, which is known as RAF Fairford. Initially, a tip from a local resident led to the arrest of five British nationals in vans outside the base. Later, two Iranian British nationals were arrested, and today NPR confirmed that credible threats of Iranian-inspired attacks led the U.S. to move all of its bombers from this base on Sunday. For more, we're joined now by NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman. Hi, Tom.
TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.
CHANG: OK, so let's start with the removal of these U.S. bombers. What happened?
BOWMAN: Well, right, so after these arrests, the U.S. official said there was additional intelligence information about a credible threat by Iran against the base, which hosted a dozen B-1 bombers which, of course, had been taking part in airstrikes on Iran. The threat was from drones, so the aircraft have returned to bases in the U.S., and of course, already Iran has hit U.S. bases all around the Middle East with drones and missiles damaging or destroying dozens of aircraft. You're looking at billions of dollars in damages.
CHANG: Right. OK, so that news is coming after we first heard about suspicious activity near the base a few weeks ago.
BOWMAN: Yep.
CHANG: Is that correct?
BOWMAN: That's right. This came as a tip, as we said, from a local resident who saw two vans heading toward RAF Fairford. It all seemed really suspicious. So police arrested five men in these vans, all British nationals in their 20s, found no explosives, but some cans of gasoline. They were released on bail, and later, a couple of others were arrested. The head of British Counter Terrorism Policing, Laurence Taylor, said investigators are considering every possible angle, including that the men could be what he call proxies, working, quote, "knowingly or unknowingly on behalf of a foreign state." And I'm told this is the Iranians' - this is kind of how they operate, not sending in its own personnel, but recruit locally.
CHANG: Interesting. OK, so what do you think this tells us about the security for these kinds of bases?
BOWMAN: No, it's a serious problem. As we've already seen at U.S. bases around the Middle East, these planes are not in hardened shelters, but out in the open. You know, Ailsa, I had coffee with a NATO military officer who was talking about this very topic early - just this week. And he said you could take a cheap drone, put a grenade on it, and do at least some damage to a B-1 bomber, a $317 million aircraft.
CHANG: Oof.
BOWMAN: And I remember, also, you know, being at Kandahar airbase in Afghanistan years ago. There are all sorts of Predator drones, F-16 warplanes. They did not have concrete shelters to protect the aircraft. That's because the Taliban, of course, did not have sophisticated drones and missiles. They just had blast walls to protect against mortars. Now, it's a different world, of course, with drones, and the U.S. will have to decide the way ahead with these bases in Europe and the Middle East, either harden these bases or maybe just leave. That could all be determined by the cost involved and also whether it decides to abandon some bases. Already, Pentagon Comptroller Jules Hurst has told Congress the administration has not decided if and where to rebuild.
CHANG: Well, speaking about the threat that drones present, I mean, just last week, you brought us news that the Defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, announced a big drone warfare initiative, right?
BOWMAN: Yeah, that's right. Just last week at Quantico Marine base, he announced Project Agincourt, named after the 15th century English-French battle where the longbow was a key in defeating a larger French army. So the drone, Ailsa, is really the longbow of this century, as we see in the Ukraine war. And this project will overhaul how the Pentagon buys and deploys drones. Of course, this project will also look at defensive systems to counter enemy drones and defend U.S. military sites, but it won't happen overnight.
CHANG: That is NPR's Tom Bowman. Thank you, Tom.
BOWMAN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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