Drone Threat Prompted B-1s to Flee U.K.

The Air Force scrambled to move a dozen B-1 bombers from a British air base last month because they were afraid they were going to be swarmed by Iranian drones according to a blog in Emissary, the publication of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The publication says the redeployment of the aircraft, about a quarter of the highly valued supersonic bomber fleet, was considered such an emergency that they were scrambled before in-flight refuelling could be organized for their trip across the Atlantic. More than $3 billion worth of hardware cut and run because of the threat from drones worth about $2,000 each, the publication claims.

Its sources said the Pentagon had intelligence the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was ready to release dozens of explosives-laden drones from white vans parked a few hundred yards from the perimeter fence at RAF Fairford. They were to target the bombers, which are parked in the open on that forward deployment, as well as the several hundred U.S. personnel at the base who manage the bombers. The B-1s launch from Fairford to hit targets in Iran.

The operation is believed to have been patterned after Operation Spider’s Web, a Ukrainian assault on air bases deep inside Russia using drones that were smuggled in pieces more than 900 miles behind enemy lines. In that operation, Ukrainian drones damaged or destroyed 41 Russian aircraft on the ground, including about 20 percent of Russia’s long-range bombers. Others have also copied the audacious Ukrainian operation, including Israel, which killed top Iranian military leaders with cheap drones.

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