Two Latvians arrested after breach at RAF Molesworth, NATO intelligence hub

Two Latvian nationals living in the UK, aged 32 and 36, were arrested early on Thursday after a security breach at RAF Molesworth in Cambridgeshire, which houses a NATO intelligence centre, police said.

Ministry of Defence police on patrol at the base found an abandoned vehicle near the perimeter at around 10pm on Wednesday, Cambridgeshire police said. Officers later found a small hole in the perimeter fence and, following a further search with Cambridgeshire police, arrested the two men inside the base in the early hours of Thursday.

The men are being investigated on suspicion of unauthorised entry to a protected site and causing damage, as well as entering a prohibited place for a purpose prejudicial to UK interests, according to police. Britain's counter-terrorism police are leading the investigation. The men remain in custody, with police required to decide within 24 hours whether to release them or seek an extension.

RAF Molesworth has been run by the US Air Force as an intelligence site since the 1990s. It has hosted a NATO joint intelligence fusion centre, which gathers and distributes information among allies, since 2007, as well as intelligence units from the US Africa Command. The US began building a larger European and African intelligence hub at the base in April 2024, though those plans have since been scaled back.

Helen Flanagan, head of London's counter-terrorism police, said in a statement that while there has been recent concern about security at military bases, "there is nothing to suggest this incident is connected" to events at RAF Fairford.

Separately, a 22-year-old British man was released on bail on Thursday, the seventh suspect bailed in an unrelated investigation into an alleged plot targeting RAF Fairford, a US-run air base in Gloucestershire previously used for bombing missions against Iran, The Independent reported. The seven suspects include six British men and one man with both British and Iranian nationality.

British officials have linked the Fairford case to Iran; the Iranian embassy in London has denied any connection. The Pentagon confirmed over the weekend that it had withdrawn all its B-1 bombers from Fairford, and US President Donald Trump said the decision followed information about a possible attack on the base.