We visited RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire on Tuesday to investigate how Donald Trump is using this airbase to bomb Iran. Screens had been put up behind the fences to restrict visibility and several roads closed, limiting access to journalists and members of the public. However by using a ladder and some ingenuity, we were able to see pallets of 2,000lb bombs being loaded onto American B-1 war planes bound for Iran. RAF Fairford is the only US airbase in Europe with a long enough runway for launching B1 bombers. However, there remains a lack of transparency regarding the role the base is currently playing. This comes despite recent polling by YouGov indicating that a majority of the British public opposes the use of UK bases for US military strikes against Iran. The US Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth has openly said there will be “No stupid rules of engagement”, “No democracy building exercise” and that the only ones who need to be worried right now are “The Iranians who think they’re going to live”. President Trump has said that the US could “Take apart their electric capacity within one hour, and it would take them 25 years to rebuild it”. At least some of the bombs used to commit such war crimes are likely to have been stored or transported through UK bases. At the same time, Keir Starmer has maintained that Britain “will not be drawn into the wider war”. But with no transparency around US targets in Iran, questions remain about how this position aligns with developments on the ground. Estimates suggest that since the assault began on February 28th, thousands of civilians have been killed or injured in US-Israeli attacks, underscoring the human cost of the conflict
