Britain has deployed a number of F-35B fighter jets to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, according to open-source flight tracking data, as tensions in the Middle East continue to rise.

The aircraft departed RAF Marham in eastern England and were supported by RAF Voyager aerial refuelling tankers during the transit. The deployment adds to the UK’s existing air presence at Akrotiri, which has long served as a key operating base for British military activity in the region. It is understood that the new deployment of capabilities is focused on defensive measures, mainly detecting and defeating airborne threats around the base.

The movement of the F-35Bs was identified through monitoring of publicly available flight data by our senior editor, Jon.

RAF Akrotiri has built up into a notably busy operating base, hosting a mix of frontline fast jets and supporting enablers. The current footprint seems to include a sizeable Typhoon presence alongside a smaller detachment of F-35B Lightning aircraft, backed by Voyager tanker support.

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson told the UK Defence Journal:

“We regularly review the capability and force protection of our overseas bases, including the Sovereign Base Areas. This recent movement of additional capabilities is part of our ongoing work to support security and stability in the Middle East.”

The deployment comes as the United States has also increased airlift activity into the region. Publicly available flight tracking also indicates a surge in U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster movements into multiple bases across the Middle East, including in Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

RAF Akrotiri itself is one of Britain’s most important overseas military facilities and has been used for operations across the Middle East for more than a decade, including air missions against Islamic State under Operation Shader.

George Allison
George Allison
George Allison is the founder and editor of the UK Defence Journal. He holds a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and specialises in naval and cyber security topics. George has appeared on national radio and television to provide commentary on defence and security issues. Twitter: @geoallison
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114 COMMENTS

    • A small part of the UK’s F35B fleet has deployed to a land base with a tarmac runway.

      Why would you send a carrier with all the protection it needs when you have a perfectly good airbase there?

      We would need to send QEC, T45, T23 and tanker at minimum. ATM the biggest issue would be the T23 as there are 3 T45’s at various levels of readiness.

      Why disrupt the normal training cycle ‘because’ we can and there are plenty enough F35B in the UK to send a CSG somewhere else where there isn’t a nice airbase that come complete with temperate climate etc. So why not let the aircrew be rotated through a nice location that people pay money to go an visit?

        • The maintainers and ground crew will travel alongside the frames.

          Easy enough to charter a couple of civvy aircraft to shift that sort of number of people.

          Their kit goes in the back of a C17 or A400M.

          There is quite a lot of accommodation on base there.

              • Depending what the mission is, considering the limit missile options they have available. Would have been better to send typhoons. More options and far bigger payload.

                  • If they are sending extra jets then they clearly think the number there aren’t sufficient. Iran doesn’t have anything to justify the need for stealth.

                    • If you have it use it, and I’m sure the RAF wants to test it’s new toy, which is probably more likely the reason.

                      I can’t see the UK being involved in directly bombing Iran and so won’t be testing it’s air defences where a stealth jet would be handy and Iran doesn’t have a realistic air force left.

                      As such these jets will be played defensive against missile attacks, which calls for zero need for stealth.

                    • Probably valuable for their ability to monitor the threats over a huge wide area & deal with or designate any incoming drones or missile Iran may lash out with if Trump attacks.

                    • Possible. Their fuel load and therefore time on station is lower but without any form of AWACS it’s probably the next best thing.

              • Correct on the C-17. There has been a daily Brize > Akrotiri flight for the past 5 days now, ~350k KG worth of cargo worth is plenty of munitions etc, Not counting the A400M flights.

        • The biggest lack there are real HAS complexes for the aircraft, and permanent GBAD.
          The fast air dets are living in a rather heath Robinson set up with revetments in the S East corner and under hangers to keep the sun off.
          Otherwise it’s a big base with I understand all the required wings for an RAF Station, which are a mix of Army/RAF.
          Plus the crews which will accompany the new arrivals.

      • At least we’ll find out if they are as good as the Americans say that they are. But I don’t want to see another labour government pooodled into a conflict. Blair did it last time and starmer doesn’t have the melons to tem, you want to batter Iran go and do it. But don’t EXPECT US TO DO IT TOO. Can’t use one of our carriers , the tourist boats around Pompey harbour won’t have anything to . Look at.

        • I wouldn’t be surprised to see Labour drag us into a US War, but this would be to save bad headlines about other poor judgement.

    • Open your brain and appreciate that Akrotiri Cyprus is the best UK “aircraft carrier” in the Med . A QEC carrier is unnecessary in that part of teh World.

    • But that is the utter and complete beauty of the UK approach using the F35b strategic flexibility.. we have airfields in the North Atlantic, mid Atlantic, south Atlantic, Mediterranean and mid Indian Ocean as well as 2 70,000 ton carriers.. Britain can deploy 5 generation fighters with ease almost anywhere on the planet and cover most of its oceans with that set of resources..

    • At least we’ll find out if they are as good as the Americans say that they are. But I don’t want to see another labour government pooodled into a conflict. Blair did it last time and starmer doesn’t have the melons to tem, you want to batter Iran go and do it. But don’t EXPECT US TO DO IT TOO.

  2. Also seeing Chinooks In Jordan.

    (I’m not actually in Jordan, I’ve never even been there, nor have I ever Met Her, just sayin)

    • The Chinnys do regularly go to Jordan and Oman for desert training.

      The sand in Jordan is almost powdery in consistency, so gets and sticks everywhere. Whereas a lot of Oman’s is really gritty.

      I have been to Jordan, but never in, however did meet her in Bosnia, when she was part of the CSE circus (showing my age now).

    • Halfwit you seem to be sniffing around a lot of places where the military are located of late, while notably denying there is any significance in it, methinks you doth protest your innocence too much my friend. Let’s put it this way if this were the Traitors I suspect you might be banished. But don’t worry I won’t tell a soul, but so as you know, I am happy to be paid in roubles or Yen wink, wink😉.

      • Mate, what can I say ? I just always seem to be in the right place at the right time !
        To be honest, there are a few others on here who could benifit from “getting out more” but It’s fun seeing all the grumpy folk typing away with such devastating and hurtfull comments 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 I particularly enjoy such Banter !

        Off out again on Monday, not sure where yet, maybe It’ll be better conditions to go to the Desert “dan saff” (Dungeness, for anyone not knowing ! ) Or maybe Up the road to Northumberland, not sure really but It’ll be nice to get away from all these bloody noisey Yanks doing Maverick Impressions !

  3. If they are there for defence we better insure some form of ballistic missile protection on the base. They are will within range of Iranian ballistic missiles. No doubt Israel’s arrow 3 will provide some protection but the base needs some form of terminal protection along the lines of Patriot or Aster 30.

    We should really have a T45 out there now. The US is pretty cocky, its is use to bombing people and having no one shoot back but with modern ballistic missiles and drones, even less capable adversaries like Iran can strike back. America has many Gucci irreplaceable aircraft and if you look at places like Diego Garcia they are rarely under concrete protection and have next to no GBAD.

    Great pride comes before a fall.

    The same cocky attitude prevailing in Sunday morning in the 7th of December 1941.

    • Not Wrong. A lot of people planning a lot of revenge I suspect that might become more obvious towards the end of this Presidency especially if he becomes a dead man walking or unfortunately for the next one.

    • The US has two THAAD batteries deployed in Israel so I think they have Cyprus covered also Cyprus has recently deployed Barak-MX but it’s good only against tactical ballistic missiles at best according to publications

      • THAAD is essentially a point defence system for BMs the effector is essentially able to travel 150kms and Israel is 300-350km from Cyprus.. Iran can high loft its MRBMs up to about 1500km apogee essentially bypassing the THADDS.

  4. Oh FFS just keep out of this, its not our problem and it’s no direct security risk to us. We don’t need to motivate another generation of terrorists to target us. And we can’t even properly defend our own corner of the world as it is without wasting scarce resources on a foreign problem half the world away.

    • Iran does call US ‘The Great Satan’ and UK ‘The Little Satan’ so we are in it wether we want to be or not.

      Sending the F35B is actually quite interesting as, on the face of it, they don’t have the weapons fit to be of much use….clearly they do have something….and if they are being used as sensors then they must be networked to the effectors on Typhoon? They won’t be reading out coordinates, in clipped tones, over RT.

      • We’re only the little Satan because we’ve been happy to be US’s poodle for too long. The US don’t deserve our support.

        • Not Really, it goes deeper than that.

          Much of Irans anger toward the UK stems from over a century of perceived colonial exploitation, meddling in domestic affairs, and support for the Shah.
          Key grievances include the 1953 joint coup against democratically elected PM Mossadegh, control over oil, and historical territory loss.

          As well as that, the UK is seen to politically support Israel, which Iran has sworn to destroy.

      • Clearly the British F-35B’s have what’s been advertised: 500lb bombs and a couple of air to air missile types. No stand off A2G.

        Typhoon is not a whole lot better armed.

        • Typhoon is a whole lot better armed and has plenty of options as was demonstrated last time the balloon went up.

          The question is where is the target data coming from?

          Previously AWACS – trouble is we don’t have any of those anymore and the E7s we have on order only the first one is doing trials and is not at IOC yet.

          • Well they dropped Paveway and fired ASRAAM and AMRAAM, so our F35s are a good fit.
            Not sure if they can ‘beast mode’ their ASRAAMs though which would be necessary given the number of drones that got fired before.

      • Well the only weapons they do have are defensive ones so would be of use against some incoming threats but yes their sensors and networking will be very useful I suspect considering our limited other options. Can’t believe we would be stupid enough to contemplate offensive actions. But yes we are a target like it or not as with Russia avoiding direct attacks on the US will be the Iranian priority whatever their bluster, previous events have shown that when they told the US what they planned to do. It will be a massive change to stop us being seen as the little Satan and you can just imagine how Russia would be urging them along to hit us their avowed historical enemy. In Countries like that history plays a vital role to fuel an oppressed population.

    • Be in no doubt Iran will hit whoever it can if it feels truly threatened.. western leaning Middle Eastern nations, Isreal, UK and European nations.. it will do what damage it can..

    • At least we’ll find out if they are as good as the Americans say that they are. But I don’t want to see another labour government pooodled into a conflict. Blair did it last time and starmer doesn’t have the melons to tem, you want to batter Iran go and do it. But don’t EXPECT US TO DO IT TOO. Can’t use one of our carriers , the tourist boats around Pompey harbour won’t have anything to . Look at.

    • New Me, MoD is saying the 6 F-35s have gone out to reinforce the Typhoons to defend our two Cyprus bases. No-one is saying they are going to bomb Iran….except you!

  5. A sensible, proportionate precaution I think.
    We are defending the SBA just in case, with what’s available. Why would some find fault with that?

      • As queried elsewhere I wonder if the idea is that they would work together in some semblance of the the form that it has long been theorised 5th and 4th Gen aircraft would operate together.

        • You just have to look at what Israel did with Operation Rising Lion last year to see how 4th and 5th generation aircraft work together in modern air warfare. F‑35Is penetrated defended airspace, located and mapped air defence systems, identified emitters and cued targets, all while staying hard to detect. That intelligence and targeting data was fed to F‑15 and F‑16, along with stand‑off shooters operating further back, which delivered the bulk of the weapons. The F‑35s didn’t try to do everything themselves, they enabled the rest of the force to operate more effectively and safely.

          Of course they also used special forces, cyber attacks and other means, but in less than four days they had freedom of movement over Iran. They were flying well over 1000 miles to strike their targets, which shows just how critical tankers were to sustaining the operation.

          • There are suggestions the Israelis had drop tanks and possibly conformal tanking too for the F-35s. Something we would really benefit from.

      • Well, I’d never go as far as to say that. I comment on what I know, orbats, infrastructure, organisation.
        Who are we here to declare we know better than the professionals in the military who know what they are doing?
        Are you or anyone else here an ex or current RAF pilot with the latest data on Typhoon and F35, with accompanying latest intelligence updates?
        I trust they know what they’re doing, it’s their job!
        On Typhoon, which has Meteor, they are at least already deployed and assume MoD assess that 10 are enough.

        • Ahh, “Who are we here to declare we know better than the professionals in the military who know what they are doing” ?

          Oh bugger, I thought I was on a site ram packed full of Professionals who knew better.
          Must find me a better site me thinks.

          Got any suggestions guys ?

          (hard hat on, taking cover now)

          • To be fair mate, this site has several SMEs who are just that, of which I’m definitely not one of them. I just know lots of general stuff.
            I still think most here just have a passing interest, are ex military, or simply have an opinion.
            So one needs to be careful as we really don’t know Jack shit unless you’re on the inside.
            Obviously, F35 was deployed for a reason, and I doubt that’s because we don’t have any other Typhoon to deploy.
            Even with the 12 at Red Flag, 10 on Shader, 4 at MPA, and those on QRA N&S.

                • The road has always played a big part, 2 wheels, 4 wheels and 6 wheels, a lot of fun has been had.
                  Nothing more fun than a big motorbike on a sunny day.
                  Wish we had some sunny days !
                  Currently I’m stripping an old BSA Lightning Air Rifle and re staining/finishing It’s stock, I like to look in here between the drying cycles.
                  Do you have any hobbies ?

                    • Oh, I like arty stuff, just not got the required concentration levels to do anything meaningfull, but I do make silly things out of Driftwood (hence a lot of coastal trips).
                      Funny you should mention not saying stuff on here, It’s a very non personal place, I know It’s not FB or X but everyone seems so guarded ?

                      Can’t be doing with all that secrecy rubbish.

            • Mate agreed, there are a few SMEs who are on here and those who have also gone AWOL whose knowledge we do miss! Most are as you say people who have in interest or experience, all of which reduces with the passage of time! You however have an amazing encyclopaedia knowledge of ORBATs and kit/locations etc whist is second to none. Me and most probably many others read your posts and are educated in stuff they have never known and never thought about ( but type info the internet straight after lol)! Your posts and replies are a central theme to this site mate and you need to keep it up (and the trains running) Cheers for always being a straight shooter 👍

      • The f35 has the better sensor set and sensor fusion… the f35 is the eyes and brain the typhoon is the spear carrier….

    • To be honest it’s probably time to have a type 45 floating around as well.. someone many try to pop a ballistic missile at Uk interests if it all goes south.

      • We do have several sets of Land Ceptor to deploy.

        We might be better off asking the Italians to deploy ASTER SAMPT defensively against that threat. It would avoid an Article5 moment.

        • To be honest I don’t know why we just don’t buy a battery or 2 of ASTER SAMPT.. it would use the same block 1 missiles as the type 45 and can be upgraded to NT when the time comes…

          • It isn’t part of Our Dear Leader Starmer’s – Great Job Creation Scheme.

            We are going to develop our own super flimflam system with extra bodoogles and wizbangs that will out wonder weapon our wonder weapons and will be ready for deployments in 20 years.*/**/***/****

            * unless the program is axed
            ** cash flow curves may be move to the right without notice
            *** timescales may slide without notice due to point 2
            ****costs may explode without notice due to points 2 & 3
            History may repeat itself and uncomfortable number of times.

              • I’m not sure the rainbow randoms we get next will be better or worse.. I cannot see a right wing tax cutting purple/blue/orange brigade being any more pro defence that a green/yellow/red left wing whoo whoo government… all in all we are probably not doing anything till Russia starts throwing cruises missiles are way..

              • I agree with Jonathan – I can’t see the situation improving markedly.

                The only thing Reform will have a mandate for is cutting the benefits bill. There is an element of lunacy about tax credits as they just allow employers to the low paid to pay less in wages. So it is a subsidy from the state for certain sectors. Which is actually quite a nutty bit of economic distortion. Why is the state distorting the market in that way?

                • Yep tax credits are a bitch.. by keeping them we are hobbling the wider economy with increased tax.. but if we get rid of them we. Essentially nerf the hospitality sector, low end white collar, retail, other service industries and health and social care etc ironically 12% of all recipients work in health and social care.. which is essentially wages either directly or indirectly set by the government…

                  Of course the big elephant in the room are the over 65s essentially we used to in the 80s spend about 5% of GDP on pension, health and social care for the over 65s now it’s about 13% give or take.. and most of that funding has been pulled from defence and things like higher education or from tax rises and it’s only getting worse 20% of the population is now over 65 and in less than 40 years it will be over 26%, almost 40% are over 50 now and in less than 40 years almost 50% of the population will be over 50…

                  Unless we figure something quick we are going to be buried under the cost of aging.. ( those 20% of over 65s cost the NHS 42% of its budget and a person at 85 costs about 7 times more in healthcare costs than a 30-50 year old., that’s before social care costs are added)..

                  It’s why I piss myself laughing when people go .. china is not a threat due to its demographic timebomb.. China only has 14.5% of it’s population over 65 it will only match our already exploded time bomb in 2040 when we both hit 25% over 65.. after 2040 China gets worse ( by 2065 China with have 33% to our 26-27%.. but I digress )…

                  Anyway.. the inescapable issue no one want to discuss is the extra 7% of GDP the government spends on the over 65s compared to the 1980.. and reform are not fixing that unless they half the state pension and stop NHS care after about 70…

                    • I’m not making a judgment on the pension itself, purely the massive increase in cost we have seen since the 1980s.. people tend to bang on about the benefits and health budget, but fail to understand the profound impact of the decade difference in life expectancy between 1980 and 2025.. and the impact that extra 10 years of life has on costs.

              • Does that mean that it is guaranteed funding?

                Or is that because its AI has determined that it has to Terminate anyone who terminates funding?

                • Yep it’s also likely it will terminate the thing it was defending so it cannot be defeated.. just like that old USAF thought experiment in which the offensive drones terminated their own command and control because there was no way to achieve the ordered outcomes so it removes the orders…

  7. One thing Iran may consider is that if it did attack Akrotiri the UK could invoke Article 5. Which would be interesting politically – we’d then find out who the UK’s friends are in Europe ( and who aren’t). Certainly implications there – and I’d hope the UK wiuld have a long memory of who did what.

    • OldSchool,
      ‘One thing Iran may consider is that if it did attack Akrotiri the UK could invoke Article 5. Which would be interesting politically – we’d then find out who the UK’s friends are in Europe ( and who aren’t)’.

      Far more to the point is that we would see if the US would weigh in as a friend…and a NATO member should do.

  9. 16 fast jets is a very significant proportion (c. 20% ?) of the RAFs entire operational frontline strength (c.90 Typhoon’s and Lightening’s?). With another 4 Typhoon’s in Qatar (albeit from the joint No.12 squadron) and 12 Typhoon’s aircraft deployed for Red Flag 26, there can’t be much left on the shelf, even assuming there are currently no RAF Typhoon’s in the UAE or Saudi Arabia. And the Voyager fleet must be max’ed out at the moment.

  10. Incidentally the 48th and currently last UK F-35B is expected to make its first flight any day soon – if it hasn’t already. Presumably next month will see the final batch flying in to Marston. The bad news is that thanks to delays to the Defence Investment Plan, the UK now has no F-35’s on order. Even if we manage to get some included in to the Lot XX order expected late this year, none will be delivered until 2029.

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