Eight U.S. Marines were injured on September 14th when an Iranian cruise missile hit the vessel they were operating on in the Strait of Hormuz -NBC
The Marines were not on a U.S. Navy ship.
A farmer driving home from a party near RAF Fairford spotted three suspicious white vans blocking a country road and masked men in balaclavas scattering into nearby fields and toward the US air base. She turned around, called police and warned residents to lock their doors. Within 25 minutes, five men had been arrested on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act, The Telegraph reports.
POLICE STATEMENT: 🇬🇧 At around 12:45 a.m. on Sunday, police received a call about three suspicious vehicles travelling towards RAF Fairford. Armed officers responded and arrested five men in the Whelford area on suspicion of offences under the Explosives Act.
A 400-metre cordon remains in place while Army explosive ordnance disposal specialists examine the vehicles. Around 85 households have been advised to evacuate as a precaution.
Police say the full nature of the incident is still being established and they are working closely with counter-terrorism policing. They have asked the public not to speculate and to follow official channels for updates.
This appears to be an L3Harris T7 explosive ordnance disposal robot. The max lifting capacity is 250lbs near the chassis with it's single arm, and 60lbs at full extension.
It seems unlikely that the robot would be able to manipulate full barrels from the back of the van onto the ground with a single arm in a manner consistent with handling explosives, suggesting that this is how authorities discovered the scene.
An aerial photo shows explosive disposal operations in the village of Whelford, just a few hundred meters from RAF Fairford, UK.
A small bomb-disposal robot can be seen operating near several trucks, likely loaded with explosives, that were heading toward the airbase where B-1B and B-52H bombers are stationed.
Interesting use of ground drones here by the Ukrainian Third Army Corps. The drones are equipped with two disposable rocket launchers and then enter an enemy position and blow themselves up. They’re working in teams of multiple drones at once.
Explosives found in a residential area at Whelford.
That's at the end of the RAF Fairford airbase runway
That is the sole heavy bomber base USAF uses in Europe and it was rumored to be in FPCON Delta.
Iranian sabotage would be the prime suspect here especially due to timing.
🚨🇬🇧 NEW DETAILS - RAF Fairford incident:
Local reporting says footage shows at least four men being detained at gunpoint near the airbase during the overnight operation.
The incident is believed to have begun at around 1am, with a police helicopter circling RAF Fairford for roughly an hour.
Armed MoD Police and Gloucestershire Police have secured roads around the base, while personnel from multiple police forces, HART teams and Army bomb-disposal specialists are at the scene.
EOD teams are examining several vehicles.
There is still no official confirmation of what was found, the suspects’ identities or motive, or whether RAF Fairford itself was the intended target.
Exclusive footage from Whelford shows a Oshkosh JLTV armored vehicle patrolling the perimeter of RAF Fairford, UK.
Helicopters continue to fly over the airbase, while all roads leading to it are currently closed and guarded by police.
British authorities have declared a major incident near RAF Fairford, a major UK airbase hosting a fleet of USAF bombers, currently locked down.
Police have arrested several men in the vicinity of the base on suspicion of Explosives Act offences, and evacuated locals.
The security posture at a number of airbases with a USAF presence across Britain has reportedly even raised in the past couple of days, with plane spotters and other sources now saying that local law enforcement, at the request of the U.S. have limited and/or stopped traffic on many of the routes to bases such as RAF Midenhall, RAF Fairford, and RAF Lakenheath.
Per a USAF statement to @ChrisUKSharp, “We are aware of the current reporting. For operational security reasons we will not discuss specific force protection measures.”
More below.
French GR MA X F1 training handgrenade with an fuze and tail for drone drops. To my Frenchies have you ever seen such thing in French army? Utility pole doesnt look like eastern Europe but the video was shared in a russian groupchat and its the first time i see footage of it
The US Army Reserve is studying which units could support potential operations against Cuba within the next few months -CBS
Units requested include a combat sustainment support battalion, medical brigade, forward surgical detachment, and a military police brigade.
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Dassault Aviation a annoncé à BFMTV avoir "porté plainte pour actes de dégradation commis dans l'usine de Cergy", qui produit des avions Rafale.
Un "collaborateur" a été "interpellé", précise l'entreprise. "La justice suit son cours."
Selon le Parisien, des dégradations ont eu lieu sur un Rafale et des équipements sensibles ont également été volés dans des usines en France en plusieurs mois.
Les succès militaires ukrainiens 🇺🇦 se poursuivent sur un front de près de 90 km, entre Borova et Sloviansk
Sur ce front, les Ukrainiens sont en passe de sanctuariser Sloviansk, l'une des deux villes clés du Donbass, en éloignant la ligne de front. La ville de Lyman, qui forme le verrou nord du Donbass est désormais bien protégée et ravitaillée.
Le groupement russe "Zapad" (ouest) a subi une importante défaite cette année, tandis que d'autres actions offensives sont en cours, pour nettoyer les infiltrations russes plus au sud. Une grande partie des zones libérées n'ont pas été officiellement annoncées par les ukrainiens, il faudra encore attendre.
Ainsi, les offensives limitées des forces armées ukrainiennes en 2026 ont permis de libérer 2 fois plus de territoires que durant la contre-offensive de 2023...
In 1983, the United States ran the "Proud Prophet-83" politico-military global war game to simulate a NATO-Warsaw Pact crisis and ensuing armed conflict.
Among the participants were officials from the Joint Staff, combatant commands, CIA, State Department, and (covertly) Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. John Vessey.
Following a few days of simulated hostilies, both sides were exchanging hundreds of nuclear attacks across Europe and other theaters. Those strikes destroyed every major German and Polish city as well as Paris, London, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Brussels, and additional targets farther afield.
The final message conveyed through a hotline estabilished for the purposes of simulation and directed to Moscow read:
"May you burn in hell like you are going to burn here."
It was sent by SecDef Caspar Weinberger.