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The sight of Army bomb disposal teams swooping into a village is a chilling reminder of the threats facing the UK.

Details are still scarce at this moment about what, or indeed may not, have transpired in Welford.

But intelligence chiefs were sufficiently concerned to put RAF Fairford on FPCON Delta.

This is the highest threat level that the US Department of Defense can declare.

It is used when a terrorist attack has happened or when an attack against a specific location is imminent.

And counter-terrorism police are already combing for clues as explosives specialists examine a number of vehicles.

It has sparked fears of a major attack plot.

RAF Fairford hosts United States air force personnel and has been used to launch operations ​against Iran during the war in the Middle East.

Suspicion will immediately fall on Tehran. To be clear, it’s far too early to say whether that could be the case.

And for all the talk of Russian hybrid warfare, it is extraordinarily unlikely Moscow would sanction such a major plot targeting an American airbase.

Investigators will be focusing on ensuring they have caught everyone linked to the men who have been arrested. Then they will be able to access devices and understand any potential motivations.

But a key strand of the investigation – which is yet to be established – is whether any explosives were viable.

This would give us a much better indication of the sophistication behind any of the actors involved.

So while we wait for the police to confirm key details, it’s worth remembering the scale of the threats the UK faces.

And, indeed, the extensive security network trying to prevent attacks.

Sir Ken McCallum admitted intelligence officers are detecting more conspiracies orchestrated by states such as Russia, China and Iran.

And terrorists – noticeably Islamist fanatics – are still plotting mass casualty attacks in the UK, Britain’s top intelligence officer admitted.

Sir Ken said on the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks: “The MI5 I lead in 2026 contends with a threat landscape markedly different to 2001’s.

“Sadly, mass-casualty terrorist ambition endures, as in the recent conviction of an Islamist extremist who sought automatic weaponry for an assault on Manchester’s Jewish community.

“But the terrorist threat now sits alongside strategic national security threats posed by capable states.”

Referencing James Woolsey, the former CIA director who spoke in 1993 of the West slaying “a large dragon” after the Cold War, Sir Ken added: “We now face the worst of both worlds: dragons are back, but snakes persist.”

The “dragons” are believed to be references to Russia, Iran and China, while the “snakes” are the dangers posed by Islamist terrorist groups such as Islamic State and Al-Qaeda.