The UK has expanded its military presence on Cyprus at RAF Akrotiri with additional aircraft, helicopters and surveillance assets as tensions in the region continue, according to the Ministry of Defence.
In an update released by the MOD, officials said the United States has begun using British bases for defensive operations aimed at preventing Iran from launching missiles into the region.
RAF Typhoon and F-35 fighter jets have continued conducting defensive air operations across Jordan, Qatar, Cyprus and the wider region in support of British interests and allied forces.
The Ministry of Defence also confirmed that a Merlin helicopter is being deployed to the region to provide additional airborne surveillance capability. The aircraft will reinforce defensive assets that were already pre-positioned earlier in the year.
The update follows an earlier announcement outlining additional deployments to the region. According to the MOD, Royal Navy Wildcat helicopters equipped with Martlet missiles have begun arriving in Cyprus. The missiles are designed to counter uncrewed aerial systems, including one-way attack drones.
Four additional RAF Typhoon aircraft are also scheduled to arrive in Qatar, further increasing the UK’s air power presence in the region.
The MOD said that during recent operations UK F-35 and Typhoon aircraft, supported by Voyager air-to-air refuelling aircraft, conducted defensive patrols over Qatar, Jordan and the Eastern Mediterranean.
Prince of wales has been moved to 5 days notice so it sounds like they may be thinking about sending a carrier battle group to the eastern med now..
Operation FIRECREST Is probably pretty screwed now.. as I’m not sure this will be over by April..
Europe probably needs to show up to be honest… the UK especially.
Indeed, I think this will perhaps be the first real test for an emerging ENATO. Can they agree and work together sufficiently? Let’s hope so.
What can the POW give that the ‘fixed’ carrier Akrotiri can’t provide? Apart from defensive actions are you suggesting that We and European countries join in the bombing? Anything that we could provide would probably get in the way of offensive operations,and political hassle the yanks wouldn’t want.
I was thinking the same. What does the carrier bring that we can’t deploy from Cyprus or nearby allied bases?
It would make more sense if it went south of Suez to help defend oil tankers, but I’m not convinced we have the escorts to do that.
I’m thinking east of Suez escorting tankers, maybe with US destroyers as escorts in the straight of humus (spelling).
Carriers don’t escort tankers.
It’s about messaging.. this is an opportunity to show Russia what ENATO can put into an area where a threat exists… exercises are easy because they are planned.. if ENATO can put 2 carrier battlegroups worth of ships into an area of threat to Europe within 2 weeks of an event just happening that is a massive show of capability and communication of deterrent to our main enemy Russia..
This is not about going all gung ho and joining in with the US in an ill thought out war.. it’s using a crisis as an opportunity to show how ENATO can respond with forces moved into an area of threat…
Deterrence is
Capability
Credibility
Communication
Let’s not waste an opportunity to increase our deterrent by showing all three…. Not reducing it by showing the opposite..Russia is watching.
We know the Americans rushed USS Ford into place, lengthening its deployment time beyond the normal, so they will be looking to replace it at some point. If Prince of Wales and Charles de Gaulle take its place rather than an American carrier it will be seen as E-NATO stepping up. However, either it will have to be a new phase of the war, once all the attacking is complete, or the whole question of legality will have to be revisited by the Attorney General, Lord Hermer.
Show up and do what? Launch an illegal war against Iran without any clear objectives. Give a load of excuses for terror groups to attack the UK.
No thanks, protect our own assets for sure but stay well out of this mess.
TBF 20 odd attacks by Iranian backed groups have been foiled before this kicked off so I don’t think these Herbert’s need much of an excuse do they?
That’s the problem. For sure the Iranian government is considering how to strike back at the US and it’s allies and the only way it really can is terror attacks. The UK tends to be a good proxy as we are perceived to effectively part of the US without actually attacking the US directly.
It’s been like that since 1979!
Ummm that’s what I said… eastern med gave it away mate.. you don’t attack Iran from the eastern med do you..
A ‘carrier battle group’???? Seriously? PoW cannot sail without suitable escorts which is a T23/T45 combo. Where are they coming from???
With RAF Akrotiri, I’m not really sure what PoW can add in the Eastern Med.
RAF Akrotiri is easily large enough to house a substantial NATO deployment.
What assets has Germany forward deployed yet, I’m guessing nothing….
Why send a carrier to the eastern Med when you have an RAF base there?
We now have 10 or 12 Typhoons in Cyprus plus 6 F35Bs. And another 8 Typhoons in Qatar. That’s significant airpower.
Indeed. The T45 and the Wildcats with Martlet have a relevant use. Along with the Typhoons and F-35s Akrotiri is protected. A UK Youguv poll says voters are against the UK joining the US and Israeli action against Iran by 2:1. Deploying POW bolsters Starmer’s weak poll ratings and prepares his left wing MPs for an increase in defence spending.
Yep, announce we are going to a 3% defence budget. Then tell Trump to go F@@k himself. Instant polling improvement. 👍 And tell the Chancellor to find the money. Or he’ll find another one who will. Boom.
That’s about the entirety of what we can deploy and still have a semblance of UKAD.
The cupboard really is bare.
If this doesn’t show why we, and the European nations need a larger Navy, I don’t know what will.
Between the whole of Europe, we have 3 proper aircraft carriers (2 British and 1 French). CdG is only sometimes available, and generally one RN carrier is available – so 1-2 carriers at any one point. Even if the RN did have both carriers available at once, we only have 40 F35s at the moment. With some in maintenance etc, that means 24 to 28 max available, so 12-14 per carrier if they had to go to different places, or more likely 18-24 on one.
Another European nation really needs a proper carrier (or France needs have two instead of one).
This reply drives the point home that the Royal Navy needs 24-30 escorts and 10 SSNs as an absolute minimum.
To be fair all it’s shown is the special relationship is dead. Clearly the US didn’t give it’s European allies or the UK the heads up for this attack, as if they did assets could have been freed up. For sure we need more but that pales in comparison to the consequences of that.
The US didn’t need our help in this but if Starmer had let them use Fairford and DG (as he is now)at the start probably this shit with Trump would not have happened!
Stuff Trump.
His not letting them use them, not fully. The legal advice was published, it’s legal to take defensive actions.
Mindlessly attacking another country without a justification is not legal.
We are not a state of the US, Starmer job is to do what’s best for the UK not the US.
But he hasn’t been doing that for the last 18 months so at least in this he was being consistent!
Wake up Steve, Starmer and his ilk loathe the UK. They will do nothing to advance your national interests. Terrorist groups have been infiltrating your country for years via the open borders policy. Internally, the UK has been balkanised. It has been pretty obvious for some months that military action might be coming, and yet the UK did nothing to reinforce its bases.
Wake up yourself and look at history. We went into two wars with the US without clear legal basis or clear win conditions and lost both badly with many dead British service man for nothing. Do we really want to do it a third time, especially considering how badly trump has treated the UK over the last few years with tarrifs etc.
Really?plenty of videos showing B1/52s coming into Fairford at the moment. I wonder where they are going🤔
Yes it’s legal to take defensive actions which is all we were ever going to do anyway! I haven’t read anywhere on this site that has said we should join in the bombing but we should have been ready for what was coming our way! Indeed the RN suggested putting a T45 in the med but were ignored.
We have given them permission to attack launchers only. Whether they are abusing that permission is another question .
Based on the advice given there is no such thing as a legal war. Based on that same legal advice Iran can keep on killing us until the cows come home and we still have no right to take any offensive action to prevent it.
The request to use RAF bases was a fair giveaway TBH. As soon as I heard that, I assumed to myself it was going to happen in about 2 weeks.
Additional jets were sent to Cyprus following it. So it wasn’t ignored but equally you would expect your allies to give you the heads up before putting your nationals across the region in danger.
The current reinforcing of Cyprus is all just a reaction to the media stories. In theory the assets there should have been enough and appear to have been as no damage was caused.
Assets in Akrotiri were there for Op Shader, with a few more Typhoons sent a bit later. Nope, to run a 24/7 QRA to missiles and drones and to continue on Op Shader tasking then nope not enough sorry. Improved now but a little bit late.
The op shader jets could be reused if needed. Clearly an attack on the base would take priority. 12-14 fully armed typhoons, plus however many f35b were sent could take out a lot of slow moving drones.
Until we know how on earth the drone got through undedicated we cant comment on whether there was sufficient assets there or not.
Feels like the wrong asests were there and we have doubled down on that, but it’s guess work.
To be honest a blind man locked in a dark box, with ear muffs on and in a dark cellar knew this attack was coming. No excuse from HMG for this absolute shit show! Yes they are reacting now, and appropriately, but the intelligence services would have advised Starmer about what is due to happening (so many signs even using OS int) and any excuse by him and his supporters is just unrealistic and patronising.
Absolutely right. Pity he did not ask the Iranians for a few weeks notice that they or their proxies would shoot at Iran to put assets we barely have into place….
However, Robert further up is right, twenty or so jets is big for the RAF, considering how small it has become.
The deployment of Merlin, assume a Crowsnest, was called by Davey B as ideal on an earlier article.
The yawning lack of AA cannons and GBAD is still present, which is why HMG is jumping up and down at how many jets the RAF has deployed.
Wish there was an edit function back on this site…Iran is, of course, Cyprus.
You are absolutely spot on but what is not being mentioned is the in year MOD budget overspend that means defence had to find £2bn of savings (cuts) for this financial year. The consequences are ships tied up and the absolute bare minimum of activity to minimise expenditure. If only Donald had asked the Treasury when it was more convenient to start a war we might have avoided some of this embarrassment.
Let’s hope the humiliation leads to some tangible consequences and an increase in the budget because nothing is going to change until it does and for a sustained period of time.
Turkey is building one.
With all due respect, please don’t project the RN shortcomings to others.
FYI the french carrier strike group just passed Gibraltar and is heading to the eastern Med and will arrive in the next 48 hours, which means France will have 12 ships in the eastern Med and Red Sea by monday: aircraft carrier, SSN, 3 Fremm, 2 Horizon, 2 Mistral amphib LHD, 2 Lafeyette, 1 BRF supply ship. (not sure if FDI is still escorting the carrier or still deployed in the North Sea / Baltic Sea)
as for other european navies, dutch and spanish frigates have joined the CdG carrier, with an italian frigate expected to join the group.
On top of that, the greek FDI frigate Kimon is off the coast of Cyprus currently
Availablity rate of UK F35 is 40%
Might be a good time to fit those missing 4x30mm onto the POW to complement their Phalanx’s and EW. There should be plenty of spares from the retired T23s lying around.
Innocent question, how agile are the drones generally? Does it take a missile to take them out or would conventional AA be sufficient in some cases? I realize that drones come in a variety of capabilities, so would woulkd require a variety of defenses.
FYI the Shahed drones fired are not agile nor fast -> you can shoot them with a marksman from a helicopter if needed, as been done numerous times in Ukraine and the Red Sea.
In fact you only want to use missiles as a last resort since they cost much much more than the drones.
This is why it’s best to use cheaper drones, airburst ammo, laser guided rockets, etc… vs these types of drones
The real trick is detecting them early enough (esp if low flying) and being there at the right place at the right time
Better late than never on Cyprua aircraft. POW is for show and a waste of time and money.