Counter-terror officers in Britain are investigating how two men got inside the perimeter of RAF Molesworth, a base that hosts US and NATO intelligence operations covering Europe and Africa.
Two Latvian men living in the United Kingdom have been arrested after a perimeter fence was breached at RAF Molesworth, a Royal Air Force base in Cambridgeshire, eastern England.
The men, aged 36 and 32, were picked up inside the base. They were first held on suspicion of trespassing on a prohibited site and causing criminal damage, then further arrested under section 4 of the National Security Act 2023 — a provision that covers entering a prohibited place for a purpose harmful to the UK.
How the alert started
As reported by The Ghana Report, a Ministry of Defence Police patrol spotted an abandoned vehicle near the base at about 22:00 British time on Wednesday. The Ministry of Defence Police is a civilian force that guards military sites.
Officers from that force and Cambridgeshire Constabulary searched the area, and a few hours later found a small break in the perimeter fence. The two men were then arrested inside the base and taken to a police station in Cambridgeshire.
The abandoned vehicle itself caused disruption the following day. At about 13:00 on Thursday, part of the A1M motorway and several other roads around Glatton were closed while bomb disposal officers examined the car behind a cordon. Cambridgeshire Police said nothing of concern was found, and the roads reopened shortly afterwards.
Counter-terror police lead the case
Counter Terrorism Policing is handling the investigation. Officers said two addresses in the Peterborough area were being searched in connection with the case.
Commander Helen Flanagan, who heads Counter Terrorism Policing London, said the inquiry is at a "very early" stage and that a key question is why the two men were at the site. She asked the public to stay alert and report anything worrying.
Police are not currently connecting the case to a separate, widely reported incident at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire last week. Flanagan said there is nothing so far to suggest a link, though investigators are not ruling anything out.
Why this base matters
RAF Molesworth sits west of Huntingdon, near the Northamptonshire border. It is not a routine airfield. It houses a NATO intelligence hub, and in 2024 the United States Defence Intelligence Agency announced it had broken ground on a facility there worth $556 million (about £421 million).
That facility is intended to serve as a centre for US military intelligence covering both Europe and Africa — which is part of why a fence breach at a quiet site in rural England draws counter-terror attention.
No charges have been announced, and the arrests are on suspicion only. The investigation continues.
