UK confirms US military now using British bases for operations against Iran

Moving aircraft like the B-1 to RAF Fairford provides the option to scale up the air campaign rapidly should the U.S. administration decide to do so,” Christoph Bergs, an airpower researcher at the Royal United Services Institute, told Stars and Stripes in an email Saturday. However, because Britain has limited the use of its bases to defensive operations, the number of sorties flown from the U.K. may remain modest unless that policy changes, Bergs said. For now, they will likely focus on Iranian long-range missile forces, he added.