RAF pilots ‘put at risk' by White House chat leak

Telegraph

27-03-2025

RAF pilots were put at risk when a White House group chat on Yemen was leaked, a former head of the Army has said.
Precise plans for air strikes on Houthi rebels were discussed by senior US officials in a secret chat that was accidentally shared with a reporter before the attack.
Lord Dannatt, a former head of the Army, told The Telegraph that because the RAF provided routine support, the leak would 'undoubtedly' have put British personnel at 'higher risk'.
A British Voyager plane was used to refuel the US jets defending the aircraft carrier that launched the strikes, in which more than 50 people died, on March 15.
The plane flew from the RAF airbase in Akritori, Cyprus, to assist aircraft protecting the USS Truman in the Red Sea.
Lord Dannatt said: 'As US officials gave away classified information about future operations in which the RAF were involved, this undoubtedly placed British personnel at higher risk.
'I hope the White House will tighten its security rapidly and considerably. We will continue to operate with the US but need to be confident about their operational security.'
Members of the group chat included JD Vance, the vice-president, Pete Hegseth, the defence secretary, Mike Waltz, the national security adviser, and Susie Wiles, Donald Trump's chief of staff.
The leak has raised questions on intelligence-sharing and what might have happened if the plans had fallen into the wrong hands. The Trump administration downplayed the severity of the leak and insisted it did not endanger the lives of US military personnel.
Greg Bagwell, a former RAF senior commander, said while it was 'not new' that British jets took part in air-to-air refuelling, in this case it was done 'in the context of a breach in national security'.
He wrote on X, formerly Twitter: 'As the tankers would have been kept out of harm's way, they were not overly compromised by the release of launch and strike times. However … it means the release may not just be a compromise of a US mission.
'It's worth noting that if any of the strike packages had been made aware that timings had been compromised they would have, in all likelihood, delayed their attack to maintain what element of surprise they could salvage.'
An RAF source said: 'Our asset wasn't anywhere near the striking so, from the RAF perspective, this is a political storm not an operational one.'
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: 'The UK did not participate in the March 15 US strikes against Houthi targets but provided routine allied air-to-air refuelling support to aid the self-defence of a US aircraft carrier in the region.
'The US is our closest ally, and we will continue to cooperate closely on defence, intelligence and security.'
RAF jets took part in air strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen last year.
Commenting on the leak on Wednesday, Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, admitted that 'someone made a big mistake' by adding the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine to the 'Houthi PC small group' chat on the Signal messaging app.
In the group, Mr Vance, the vice-president, raised objections to plans to bomb Yemen, arguing that they were not in American interests. 'I just hate bailing Europe out again,' he wrote.
'Three per cent of US trade runs through the Suez. Forty per cent of European trade does. There is a real risk that the public doesn't understand this or why it's necessary. The strongest reason to do this is, as [the president] said, to send a message.'
Mr Hegseth responded, saying: 'VP: I fully share your loathing of European freeloading. It's pathetic. But Mike is correct, we are the only ones on the planet (on our side of the ledger) who can do this. Nobody else even close.'
The Trump administration has berated Europe on defence, claiming it does not spend enough, and has criticised countries including Britain and Germany, claiming they were stifling free speech.
Publicly, Mr Trump, the US president, has said he has confidence in his beleaguered national security team.