British Military Bases Breached in Succession; Security of US-UK and NATO Intelligence Hubs Questioned

British counter-terrorism police announced on October 8 that two Latvian nationals, aged 36 and 32 respectively and both resident in the United Kingdom, had been arrested at RAF Molesworth in Cambridgeshire, southeast England. They are suspected of unlawful trespass and of entering a prohibited place "for a purpose prejudicial to the interests of the United Kingdom" and are currently being held in police custody.

According to Agence France-Presse and France 24, the incident occurred in the early hours of that day. A security patrol spotted an abandoned vehicle on the perimeter of the base and then located a "small-scale breach" in the fence, where the two men were arrested. Originally a Second World War-era flying facility, Molesworth no longer handles aircraft and is administered by the U.S. Air Force. The base also hosts the NATO Intelligence Fusion Centre—its website states it has more than 200 staff—as well as the Central Intelligence Agency's operational hub for intelligence activities across Europe and Africa.

This incident came only days after another major security alert. On September 27, after "suspicious activity" involving three white vans near RAF Fairford in southwest England, seven men in their twenties were arrested, one of whom held British-Iranian dual nationality. They were later granted bail, but following the episode U.S. forces withdrew the B-1 strategic bombers that had been deployed at Fairford. The nature of the threat in the Fairford incident has not been publicly clarified.

"At this stage there is no indication of a connection between this incident and the events at Fairford last week," counter-terrorism policing lead Helen Flanagan said in a statement, but added that the investigation was being kept "open-minded."

The successive intrusions at Molesworth and Fairford are not isolated cases of security failures at British military installations. Last June, pro-Palestinian activists broke into RAF Brize Norton in southern England, climbed onto aircraft, spray-painted them red and posted video of the act.

With perimeter breaches at two bases within a fortnight, B-1 bombers pulled out over "security concerns," and intruders last year able to work on the fuselage of military aircraft, the British government has so far offered no systematic response or accountability review regarding the physical-security posture of U.S. military and NATO intelligence facilities on British soil.