Calls to investigate 'Russian links' to drones at airbases

A former security minister has called for an urgent investigation” into reports of Russian links to drone activity over US airbases in England.

- ARCHIE MITCHELL

A number of unidentified drones were spotted on multiple occasions over three airbases – RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall, in Suffolk, and RAF Feltwell, in Norfolk – last November, the US Air Force said. Around 60 British troops were deployed to help the US Air Force in its investigation of the incident.

Labour frontbencher Vernon Coaker warned at the time that those responsible for the spate of recent illegal airborne incursions faced up to 14 years in jail under national security laws.

And now new evidence of the movements of three individuals with alleged links to the Kremlin at the time of the sightings suggests a Russian state link to the drone activity, according to an investigation by The i Paper. Two of the individuals were believed to have worked as seasonal fruit pickers, the newspaper reported.