The US Air Force is pulling its UK-based aircraft out of the country due to the ongoing threat from Iranian-linked activity in Britain. Most of the US’s refuelling tankers, KC-135s, left over the past few days. These planes are more vulnerable to ground attacks as unlike fighter jets they do not use hardened shelters, they just sit on the tarmac. They have been relocated to Spain and Germany…
The temporary deployment of B-1 bombers to RAF Fairford had already been pulled back after the security incident there. The US has also removed Osprey aircraft which are used to transport special forces…
While the move is embarrassing for the UK Government it also has practical consequences, according to military sources. The KC-135s were the only permanent US tanker fleet in Europe and regularly refuelled RAF aircraft as part of the joint basing arrangements. They also refuel the UK’s airborne early warning capability provided by Rivet Joint aircraft, which regularly patrol the skies over the North Sea to combat Russian incursions. The RAF has nine full-time refuelling tankers, the availability of which is limited by maintenance, NATO support and long-range transport e.g. to the Falklands. The RAF uses a probe-and-drogue refuelling system – it does not operate tankers which have a refuelling boom, unlike the USAF, which limits the number of interoperable planes the UK can refuel independently. Not a word from the Defence Secretary on restoring US confidence in the UK’s security…
Lucy Powell told Sky News that the Ed Miliband-Russell Brand interview happened in part because the ‘social media age’ had not begun by 2015:
“Look, I mean, he approached the Labour Party, he approached the campaign team, and we’re in very different times now. We weren’t in the social media age at the time – where you could maybe search things up and see allegations about somebody at the time. and as I say, if there was any suggestion at all, we were dealing with someone who was a known sexual predator at the time, then, of course, you know, no one would have done that. But as I say, he was a well known public figure. Lots of people from Hollywood to the BBC to many others gave this person a very, very powerful platform. And we didn’t know at the time, unfortunately. It was a different era.”