British MPs seek better protection for US war planes

<a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/uk/" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/uk/">British MPs</a> have demanded greater investment in hardened shelters for <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/us/2026/11/10/iran-fairford-plot-charges/" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/us/2026/11/10/iran-fairford-plot-charges/">military aircraft</a> after a withdrawal of US bombers from strategic bases.

With <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/us/2026/10/04/all-us-bombers-depart-raf-fairford-amid-security-fears/" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/us/2026/10/04/all-us-bombers-depart-raf-fairford-amid-security-fears/">American aircraft</a> leaving established UK sites due to apparent threats from Russia and Iran, the issue of airbase security has prompted an urgent question in parliament about how the government intends to strengthen their defences.

Only a handful of bases have what the RAF calls hardened aircraft shelters – concrete and steel structures designed to protect aircraft from bombing, chemical threats and drone attacks. Conservative MP John Cooper said his own experience was of “serried ranks” of aircraft in the open at one of Britain's most important operational airbases for air defence and maritime surveillance. “What consideration has been given to rather than parking them out in the open air, some cheap physical security like hardened air shelters or revetments, because at the moment it looks like the Russian drone jockey's dream,” Mr Cooper said.

Defence minister Luke Pollard responded that the government took “the security very seriously” at the base, which houses four squadrons of Typhoon fighters and the RAF’s entire fleet of nine P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, vital for tracking Russian submarines in the North Atlantic. But Lossiemouth is also a regular operating base for US Poseidon aircraft that have become the target of an Iranian campaign. In September, US bombers were evacuated from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire after a reported plot to attack the base with drones.

Two men have been charged under the National Security Act. This week all US aerial-refuelling tankers were flown out of RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk after another reported Iranian threat, and last year members of Palestine Action broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, causing £7 million ($9.4 million) of damage to aircraft. The incidents had contributed to what another Conservative MP said was the “ludicrous image” among those in the US Maga [Make America Great Again] movement that “somehow the United Kingdom is now a basket case when it comes to security”.

Mr Pollard, who admitted that “we are seeing an increase in misinformation, especially online”, said there was now an “evolving range of threats”, including hostile reconnaissance, sabotage, espionage, terrorism, organised crime “and malicious use of drones”. British airbases are “massively vulnerable” and Mr Cooper was “entirely correct”, military expert Francis Tusa told <i>The National</i>. Almost all lack adequate surface-to-air missile defences, proper radar coverage, an RAF Regiment presence and hardened aircraft shelters.

“They all need air defence. None of them have. They need we need more HASs, more Rapid Ranger counter drone and air defence, a squadron of RAF Regiment at each base and we need much more radar coverage,” said Mr Tusa, editor of the <i>Defence Eye</i> publication. The US War on the Rocks defence platform has also highlighted the vulnerability of US aircraft stationed overseas around the world, saying in a report that the Pentagon must “comprehensively harden airfields”.

Given the drone and missile threat, it will need to “conduct a multi-year campaign of construction” at airfields “inside and outside the US”. Mr Pollard said security for airbases had been reviewed and “additional policing, guarding and specialist support has been deployed where required”. However, he could not comment further on “intelligence matters or ongoing operations”. Shadow defence minister Mark Francois asked what discussions had taken place with US partners “to reassure them that our air bases are still safe for their aircraft?”

Mr Pollard said for “operational security” he could not comment on any talks. Concerns were also raised about the safety of US personnel who live in towns outside the bases and the increasingly complex nature of the threats they face. The minister said this was also an issue being addressed.