Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy (L) hosts a meeting with US Vice President JD Vance (R) at Chevening House, in Chevening, southeast England, on August 8, 2025.
The military installation serves as a key location for U.S. Air Force operations and is Air Force Global Strike Command's preferred bomber forward operating base in Europe. U.S. Air Force bombers are regularly deployed to the military base as part of Bomber Task Force Europe 25-2 to integrate with NATO allies and sharpen the service’s global strike capabilities.
Days after Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022, several Air Force B-52H Stratofortress bombers from Fairford conducted joint operations with Germany and Romania over NATO's eastern flank.
There are approximately 10,000 U.S. troops stationed in the U.K., according to foreign policy think tank Council on Foreign Relations.
Prior to addressing U.S. troops, Vance is poised to participate in calls with European leaders to discuss the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Fox News Digital has learned.
The calls come on the heels of multiple other discussions with European allies on a series of topics – including the war – during Vance’s U.K. visit. Vance has met with multiple U.K. leaders, including U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
A U.S. official told Fox News Digital that Vance and Lammy discussed the relationship between the U.S. and the U.K. and the two allies’ shared economic and technology goals during a meeting on Friday at Lammy’s official residence, Chevening House, in Kent, England.
SUMMIT WITH PUTIN SET TO TOP TRUMP’S AGENDA THIS WEEK AS UKRAINE WAR TAKES CENTER STAGE
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025, in Washington as from left, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, look on. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Meanwhile, Trump told reporters Monday that he’d know within minutes is Putin actually interested in a deal or not. Still, he said Moscow and Kyiv must come to terms with some "land swapping" issues to sign off on a deal.
"If it’s a fair deal, I will reveal it to the European Union leaders and the NATO leaders and also to President Zelenskyy," Trump said. "I may say, ‘lots of luck, keep fighting,’ or I may say we can make a deal."
Trump’s meeting with Putin also comes as his relationship with the Russian leader has soured as peace negotiations have lagged. While the two seemed to remain cordial with each other publicly during Trump’s first administration, that’s changed in recent weeks as Trump has grown fed up with Putin’s tactics.
"We get a lot of bulls--- thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth," Trump said during a Cabinet meeting on July 8. "He's very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless."
Diana Stancy is a politics reporter with Fox News Digital covering the White House.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/vance-visit-us-troops-during-high-stakes-uk-trip-ahead-trumps-putin-meeting