Safe Travels Lancers!

Loading Twitter/X Embed...
If tweet fails to load, click here.

IN FULL: US Bomber Force Withdrawal from RAF Fairford #IranWar?

OK so now we know the full scale of this withdrawal, here's the details - 10 of the 12 B-1B "Lancer" bombers remaining at the base (including the aircraft that only arrived 6 days ago on a rotation) are heading back to the US right now (and the other 2 were meant to leave today too, and might still do so):

Cell 1:
B-1B "MAYAN11" 86-0140 #AE6C0B (DY 345BS) "Last Lancer"
B-1B "MAYAN12" 86-0107 #AE6BEF (WA 77WPS) "Dragon Slayer"
B-1B "MAYAN13" 86-0112 #AE6BF4 (DY) "The Black Widow"

Cell 2:
B-1B "MAYAN21" 86-0138 #AE6C09 (EL) "Seek and Destroy"
B-1B "MAYAN22" 86-0103 #AE6BEC (DY) "The Reluctant Dragon"
B-1B "MAYAN23" 86-0124 #AE6BFE (DY) "Oh! Hardluck II"

Cell 3:
B-1B "MAYAN31" 86-0120 #AE6BFA (EL) "Whiskey Pete"
B-1B "MAYAN32" 85-0069 #AE6BD0 (EL) "Avenger"

Cell 4A:
B-1B "MAYAN41" 86-0111 #AE6BF3 (EL) "Let's Roll"
B-1B "MAYAN42" 85-0060 #AE6BD1 (EL) "Doolittle Raiders"

Cell 4B (Possibly broken):
B-1B "MAYAN43" 86-0108 #AE6BF0 (EL) "Alien with an Attitude"
B-1B "MAYAN44" 86-0134 #AE6C05 (EL) "Thunderbird"

Supporting Tankers (Unclear if all have actually flown):
KC-135R "LAGER52" 61-0315 #AE0237 (EGUN)
KC-135T "LAGER53" 58-0095 #AE04FD (EGUN)
KC-135R "LAGER54" 63-8878 #AE05B1 (EGUN)
KC-135R "LAGER55" 60-0353 #AE062B (EGUN)
KC-46A "BLUE30" 11-46058 #AE5FA5 (LPLA)
KC-46A "BLUE31" 21-46094 #AE63CA (LPLA)
KC-46A "BLUE40" 19-46065 #AE5FAC (LPLA)
KC-46A "HIFI81" 17-46034 #AE5E0F (KPSM)
KC-46A "HIFI82" 18-46054 #AE5FA1 (KPSM)

And so that's it - the end of the Bomber Deployment to RAF Fairford! A total of 29 B-1B and B-52H airframes have been deployed since March 2026, with a total of 64 combat and over 190 training sorties tracked by the team
@MATA_osint