The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that British forces are responding to what it described as a suspected drone strike at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.
In a statement issued shortly after midnight local time, an MOD spokesperson said: “Our Armed Forces are responding to a suspected drone strike at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus at midnight local time.”
The spokesperson added: “Our force protection in the region is at the highest level and the base has responded to defend our people. This is a live situation and further information will be provided in due course.”
The confirmation follows earlier unverified reports circulating online claiming an explosion or impact at the UK’s Sovereign Base Area in Cyprus.
It is understood that there have been no casualties as a result of the incident.
RAF Akrotiri is located within the Western Sovereign Base Area and serves as a key hub for UK air operations in the Middle East. The UK regularly reviews the protection posture of its overseas bases, including in Cyprus, in light of regional threats.
In recent weeks, additional defensive capabilities have been positioned at British bases on the island as part of ongoing efforts to support security and stability in the region. These measures are focused on detecting and countering airborne threats and include radar systems, counter-drone systems, F-35 aircraft and ground-based air defence assets.
The situation remains ongoing. Further updates are expected as more information becomes available. We also don’t have confirmation of where the drone originated, so have avoided speculation as to origins at this stage.
Hopefully nothing expensive was lost but this does give yet another excuse for Starmer to get off his backside and authorise an appropriate response, like finish off what’s left of the Iranian navy/air force
In the words of Rainier Wolfcastle “Up and at them!”
Really? What is the justification for attacking Iran, what is the legal basis?
All we would be doing is providing a token force Vs US/Israel and putting a target marker on the UK, both our overseas basis but more worryingly terror attacks on the mainland..
Let’s stay out of this and leave it to the US.
Nah I don’t believe in appeasement. We have been attacked directly, we should respond
And these islamist bottom feeders never needed an excuse to launch terror attacks anyway. The likes of France, Germany and Saudi Arabia are likely to launch their own operations in the near future also
I highly doubt France/Germany will attack Iran, as why bother.
There is no end game here, what can bombing aim to achieve. Unless trump comes out and explains how it’s going to result in regime change, the only outcome is things becoming far worse.
It achieves the downfall of a regime that has been a menace to its own people, the region and the world; and is a key Russian ally that has been supplying them with drones among other things, actively working against UK interests in Ukraine. This attack should be celebrated, and we should absolutely be partaking in this action.
How does bombing achieve the downfall of the regime or achieve a more friendly regime taking over? The regime is made up of thousands of people, just taking out a few leaders isn’t going to achieve anything.
How does closing your eyes to a threat make the threat any less? How does removing a regime’s leadership not change a regime?
Explain how it does? If you removed Starmer would it change the government of the UK, of course not there is a whole structure of government. If you removed 100 PMs would how we as a country operate change, of course not.
Iran isn’t a dictatorship, it’s a religious faction, with many many people involved in it.
No history isn’t just determined through invisible forces. Agency still has something to with it. Thatcher was different from Heath. Musk is irreplacable from his companies.
True but in Iran you have a whole regime that hates the west for years of sanctions and interference. They also religiously believe the west is wrong. That can not be changed by taking out a handful of people.
The current regime has violently cracked down on opposition groups for decades, as such there isn’t an organided one that could step up, well not a more friendly one. Any coup is likely to be lead by a group to extremists, so one posion for another.
Just look at Iraq or Afghanistan, there the regime was changed by ground forces and years of occupation and still failed.
Maybe trump has a plan and not willing to share it, time will tell.
Don’t get me wrong, if trump has a plan for regime change, then for sure it’s worth it, but I suspect an indication of him not having is that the UK isn’t involved, for the first time since vietnam. If they can’t make the case behind closed doors to the UK, a 5 eyes member, then there isn’t a case to be had.
‘This attack should be celebrated’
They’re bombing schools, mate.
Are we out if it? Healy claims 20 or so terrorist attacks have been stopped in the UK alone that were sponsored by Iran ,seems they don’t mind trying to attack us.
100%. Some of the posters on here are blind to threats Iran pose to the UK. After USA and Israel, we’d be third on their nuke attack list if they ever got the bomb.
Not blind and as someone that works in London now a little nervous. I just don’t see the need to make things worse. Especially as all the UK would achieve is a token measure Vs the 2 carrier air wings that the US has in the region and air force of Israel.
The UK has no real reason to join in the bombing campaign.
However, Iran probably does not see it that way, they see the UK as a coloniser and supporter of the US and Israel,
and therefore the UK must be dealt with severely.
This is the existential conflict Iran has been preparing for.
If the regime survives this campaign, they will definitely go for a Nuke, they have nothing to lose anymore.
They’ve been ‘definitely going for a nuke’ for a long time now. They’ve been using stalling tactics, pretending to want peace and dialogue, and fooled weaker western governments for too long. Without decisive action they could well have had nuclear capabilities within a few years.
Where does the definetly come from? European intelligence and UN have both stated there is no evidence of this. It’s only the US that has stated it without evidence, and after Iraq dodgy intelligence do you blindly believe them?
That wouldn’t be the same European “intelligence” that stated that Putin had no intention of invading Ukraine, would it?
France was telling that they were, it was German/ukraine that was down playing it but yeah
Also UK intelligence questioned Iran willingness to make nukes. UK was calling the russian threat.
Intelligence is always based on a number of assumptions but considering the US has failed to persuade any other nation other than Israel to be involved should give an indication of how strong the intel is.
Dear BOF. If you attack us we have every reason to get involved in the bombing campaign. Pretty sure the Typhoon boys at AKI would be more than willing to burn everything witha Hezbollah flag to the ground right now.
I agree, but our armed forces are not ready for anything on this scale. We would quickly run out of ordinance
So Sky Sabre not in place! complacency, incompetence – wtf. Bring back the Typhoons until the base is properly protected.
Do we know it wasn’t in place?
the fact a drone with the range(& size) to get to Cyprus was able to hit the base – yes
No that just says something got through, doesn’t confirm the battery wasn’t there. It’s possible it failed to detect the drone. We don’t have the info.
There are have been zero visual confirmation or announcements of the deployment of SS to AKI so doubt it’s there.
Richmond has already proven capability of CAMM against drones.
SS comes under the command of the army – so likely deployed in Estonia and Falklands only.
If there wasn’t a deployment then it’s nuts and people’s heads should roll, it was clearly going to be a target as it has US jets there.
Yes
rmj, The Typhoons have never gone away. In fact their numbers were reinforced recently.
Badly worded on my part – I meant they shouldn’t be at AKI until base protection’s in place
Clearly the UK is having problems protecting our overseas assets, thankfully the Greek Navy/Air Force seem to be stepping in to help plug the gaps. Going forward though the UK needs to come up with a plan that meets requirements. Time for people to start walking the walk they are so good about talking
What a fascinating modern world we live in.
Bet the DIP gets rewritten now and waits another few months to find money for new GBAD.
Surely science can come up with a solution that pairs a simple sensor to an AA cannon that can be automated and then a handful placed at a facility for these slow moving threats?
We seem utterly allergic to buying AA gun types for some reason. How about even some .50s and GPMGs around the place for daylight. They were fixing them to railings of ships in 82.
I find it ridiculous, I’m looking forward to the excuses from HMG.
You’re spot on, Daniele. The technology necessary to interdict a low speed UAV was developed during WW2 to deal with the V1! A modern version of that system would cost peanuts.
The Army seems totality against AA guns for some reasons and that goes back to the late 1970’s. What the reason is I don’t know. When equipment like Marksman was mentioned it was a non-starter.
It actually goes back to the War, WW2 when they spent huge amounts on 40mm Bofors but virtually never used them for anything but V1 interceptions. Too late equipping for Battle of Britain after they lost the first lot at Dunkirk. Never got them into action in Normandy. Huge waste of resources except in Malta. Malta is a situation like Cyprus but one better served with ships offshore. We need more than 13 Frigates. At present we have 7!!! and one is US. But the oldest can be used for Coastal and Harbour defence. However as per the Navy always destores and pulls ships apart for spares much to soon. The T23s coming out of service must be kept as temporary AA Defence ships. They have Richmond in the Gulf after its 5 year MOT ran out. Forget that get it back to the UK and use it.
You are right there. We should not only upgrade our shipbourne 30mm but equip ourselves with the same for key infrastructure and airfield defence. Plus we need many more CAMM bateries and to fund this Reeves has to go after tomorrow.
My other key item is scrapping the RAF purchase of F35As. This is nothing more than sabotage! The next war will be what you are seeing here where fixed bases are of limited value as they are sitting targets. The RAF has to get used to going to sea. To that end I am suggesting we buy two squadrons of F35Cs. Until the Carriers are remade as CATOBAR they can hitch a lift on the French Carrier or the USN (If they will still have us aboard after Starmer’s pathetic performance). We need to be deploying those F35Cs to join in manouevres with the French and as tactical in Europe. They will be more costly than F35As but what the…….k. They have a better range than either the other 2 variants.
Exactly, something similar to the Gepard, perhaps with additional Martlet or similar. But, really any kind of a hull with with a 30mm cannon and a radar. It isn’t rocket science, there’s plenty of systems that can be bought off the shelf, it’s a basic, workable solution .
But I’ve no doubt they will fuck it up and bang on about some world leading, triple lethality system that exists in a consultation document somewhere…
We already have a System that is ready to go – it is called Ajax .
I keep picturing a .50 or GPMG on a trailer mounted RWS hooked up to a radar/”simple sensor”.
Last week we went past the anniversary of Starmer’s announcement that in 2027/28 £6bn will be taken from Foreign Aid budget and given to the MOD (although he deliberately miscalculated and called it £13.4bn). This flagship increase of peanuts, was announced 26 months in advance and continually referred to in the past tense by the likes of Healey as though they had already funded it.
How long will it take the government to reach a realisation that it’s too little too late? That the time to make the increase was five or ten years ago, and not to delay it until 60% of the way through this parliament?
Unbelievable really.
Hit by a low tech drone.
If there ever was a wake-up call to the ever useless Starmer & Reeves combo this is it.
It shows how vulnerable UK bases are and that there is no last line of defence.
The usual problem with these kind of instances is that they embolden aggressors and arm them with the possibility of success.
Before this there would have been a chance of an opponent thinking that there was high powered EW or undeclared point defence. Not now – that is all in the open.
beggars belief that with the likely threat assessments that nothing has been done bar a few gate guards! Stache needs to start shouting at people to get protection in place
possibility of drone sent from hezbollah group in lebanon. are not most military bases exposed and fairly defenseless to low tech drone threat.
Yep, US bases with the most advanced air defences and on maximum readiness have been hit over the weekend. The threat by low cost drones is significant, especially after Russia has collected so much info on strength /weaknesses of western air defences during its daily bombardment of Ukraine.
Russia is far more likely. That was a strategic move and as you know the Russians have been sniffing around the French Carrier in the Med.
Think that would be a v stupid move by Ivan if we could prove it was a Russian drone attack, that would be an attack on nato, on a base that usa wants the use of.
To hear a wake up call requires you to have a pulse.
Agreed the whole RAF current thinking is sugar, we also need the investment in defending all our Naval bases and getting the 4 best decommissioned T23 Frigates back as inshore CAMM defence ships where they havent been scrapped already. Forget Lloyds we are in a war. Park one on the Clyde, the Solent, The Forth, and Barrow. Also defend RR and BAE main manufacturing.
I don’t understand why we would use a T23 hull to do that when all you need are the missile tubes, part of a tower crane to put Artisan on, a container for the launcher cabinet and a couple of containers for the CMS and controllers.
But you are creating a unique version of Sky Sabre using T23 bits….that assumes that those bits are still around.
Boris Johnson was in charge 4 years ago when RU cruise and ballistic missiles hammered Ukr military and civilian infrastructure.
Patriot should have been ordered that day when it was apparent we are wide open
I accept that counter small drone systems need time, but Sky Sabre was in place.
Starmer has had two years to see reports that even the radar on Sampt is reportedly not upto the job of dealing with the adaptations Ru has made to BM.
Meanwhile Germany orders Arrow 3, more IRIS systems, already has Patriot.
Where is the resistance coming from?
Army who fear further cuts or RAF seniors who believe their fighter priority must be protected.
Meanwhile we give Pakistani money for climate change projects and £97m to the Jihadi Jolani.
If there are causalities down the line, I hope families sue the Govt.
I mean sky sabre was in service 4 years ago but order levels have been at a snails pace.
Remember we joined Sky shield the same day as Germany, lots of UK announcements along with two other air defence and missile programs we joined. The last government was great at joining stuff just never bought anything.
Stop blaming the last Government. The situation you are dealing with is the present one. Get the rich entrepreneurs back from the Gulf so they can help pay for what we need. Fire Reeves, the only women to understand Defence are those that have served and a few geniuses like Thatcher.
Reeves will lose us the war for a hapenth of tar. spend 30bn GBP on defence. It may already be too late but move her out of No11 and form a decent Government.
“ I accept that counter small drone systems need time, but Sky Sabre was in place.”
The small numbers of Sky Sabre are down to army perfectionism.
As soon as they got their delivery they announced they wanted a longer range system. There was funding for many more units.
The biggest issue is the total lack of deployable gun based defences.
SB, Was SkySabre in place at Akrotiri? I have never heard that it was. If so, why didn’t it shoot down the incoming drone?
No idea if it was or wasn’t.
RAF were never keen on dedicated GBAD capability as they wanted to do it using their frames.
Problem here is the tiny number of frames can’t be everywhere.
This is genuinely embarrassing, how was the area not protected? Surely they must be on high alert (government said yesterday we are) so how did a drone get through?
Currently watching on the news Gulf countries shooting down hundreds of aerial threats on a daily basis and an RAF base on an island with immense amount of warning capabilities cant shoot down a solitary drone coming at it.
Borderline speechless.
I mean the US bases got hit also, it’s not like we are alone. Iran no doubt has all the info from Russia on how to beat western air defences.
“the US bases got hit also ”
Yes, but they were under much heavier attack, and they are much closer to Iran, so less warning time.
We don’t know where it came from or if it was Iran or one of their supporting terror groups. It’s possible it flew a route that meant it got lost in other traffic and by the time it was close to the base it was too late. Hopefully we should know more in coming weeks.
Probably Russia.
Extremely unlikely.
Assuming its a Shahed of some iteration they arent exactly fast moving, how could no one spot a slow moving object heading directly to them on an unusual trajectory?
Ask Ukraine, they can’t stop them all. Even in periods where they have fresh stocks of missiles they only manage to get 80-90% of them. Military radars just aren’t designed to track small slow moving objects, they are designed to track small but fast moving or large and slow.
I still haven’t seen an official statement from the MOD about it, so not sure we will ever find out what happenned.
From all accounts it sounds like 2 drones maximum, I understand Ukraine under multiple missile and drones at once something inevitably will get through, same as Israel with Iron Dome alot has got through under heavy bombardment.
Regardless even if it was 4 or 5 drones its still a laughing stock globally, Starmer probably needed to read the legal context of shooting it down before giving the green light, assuming it was even noticed it was incoming.
I doubt Starmer was involved. From the news the RAF shot down multiple drones that night, so I would guess the pilots were given rules of engagement and took action.
Bahrain had multiple drones/missiles got sent to the naval base, many got intercepted.
By all accounts this was a single drone which is being said as ‘accidently’ hit the base. Surely a single radar system is being operated and a slow moving drone with a 2 stroke piston engine not following a flight path could have easily been detected?
Its an utter joke.
Has the UK government confirmed it yet? Last I read it was just Cyprus. What isn’t clear is what type of drone or if it was shot down and debris hit the base as they couldn’t shoot down over Cyprus itself.
Ok, can’t afford to shoot them down as we have limited missile that coat vast amounts, we have no anti aircraft/drone guns unlike most of NATO. So we do nothing and look dumb. Defence Review has fixed nothing, solved nothing and is doing nothing. So many gaps in GBAD its a joke. Bet we got a few projects running though that might in 3 to 5 years find some thing we can think about ordering but drag that out as well,
No lessons were learned from Ukraine, it seems. It has been clear since 2005 that a war on Iran would go regional and Cyprus would be in the cross hairs, if not from Iran, then Hezbollah just across the water.
It will be interesting to see how many drones were involved in the attack, how many were shot down and how one got through. Several outlets report one drone shot down, one hit, with a few others initially reporting 5 drones intercepted. There was also reports from Healey of ballistic missiles intercepted, although the Cypriot government denied they were targeted at Cyprus.
What I’m getting at is fog of war is very much in play here and we don’t know what we don’t know.
If it was a complete failure then heads must roll and orders must be placed now.
Steve, MSM report that one drone attacked and impacted, damage to buildings was minor, no casualties. None were shot down as I don’t believe we have GBAD at Akrotiri, unbelievably.
I haven’t seen any confirmation of 0 GBAD there yet. They also haven’t confirmed a Sky Sabre battery was deployed so who knows at this point. MSM relies on several sources reporting an event before they publish, and rightly so. All we know is they have confirmation that a drone hit the runway at Akrotiri.
Yvetter Cooper is quoted as saying “We’re not able to provide further information and detail at this point, but obviously, all of the precautionary measures are being taken around the base.” so make of that what you will.
I know exactly the value of that statement. There’s an element of operational security which is required. But the operational vulnerability is caused by political incompetence which needs to be masked.
Does Akrotiri still just protect jets with gazebos? If that is still the case then it is insane or even treason. One day this country will wake up and find we are so far in the mire we will drown together. Limitless money seems to be found for social projects, welfare and the NHS so best start recruiting Russian language teachers for schools, get ahead of the game for once. 2% on income tax right now and start a last ditch effort to get our shit together but it will never happen because we have so many things we would rather do so we will just keep our fingers crossed and hope everything goes away. Also Healey needs to learn to keep his trap shut and if he must speak get his facts at least half right.
“One day this country will wake up and find we are so far in the mire….”
I think that day has come already.
Yes. I study base infrastructure a lot.
I think there are rudimentary revetments around the SE area of the station but no genuine HAS that I have seen.
It is strange, as in the 80s NATO paid for lots of HAS complexes in the UK, yet Akrotiri, a key NATO base, did not receive them.
Some but not all Cypriot governments dislike the base being there as they think it makes Cyprus a target, which of course it does and HAS would confirm it. Sheer un-utterable folly to risk men and machines like this. This and frankly governments going back to Blair are acting so badly on defence its almost treason.
My understanding is that the SBAs don’t need permission from the Cyprus government re planning permission or ops, they are soveriegn territory.
So this is the usual political tip toeing rather than getting on and spending money defending out assets at one of the most vital stations the RAF has.
The Modern RAF is fully and always on Holiday. They work much shorter hours than the Fleet Air Arm dont you know. Cant cope with sea time on the carriers. My family were in the FAA from 1940 right through to the end in the Pacific. Another at Southwick Park for and on DDay.
I don’t think we have ever properly protected this base other than a few guards at the gate. Do the Typhoons get hangared in HAS? Why no SkySabres and SHORAD (MANPADs) there? They protect MPA in the Falklands.
No HAS at Akrotiri, no.
They have tents.
Lack of substantive AA defence after years of cuts this is going to happen….
To many false economies have been made, we need low cost per shot drone/missile defence systems at scale right now to defend out bases and critical infrastructure.
I despair.
We have known for years that this base was within range of Iran’s new generation of missiles and drones.
We have suspected for years that this conflict with Iran would happen one day.
Same old story … in 5 years time we will have some new system / some new equipment …. too late!, war is happening now.
On top of this 100s of thousands of Brits may need evacuation from Gulf states. I warn of such a scenario when Healy and Starmer pre election ramble on about retrenchment to Europe. Why were we not on a high state of readiness for this with assets forward deployed, not in the gulf but in a position to support and defend Brits in trouble. We know Trump is unreliable and chaotic so there’s really no excuse. Smacks of ideology and doing the reverse of the previous government over proper policy that reflects reality.
In reality there is no country with the ability to evacuate the numbers you state! why on earth would you have gone on holiday etc to the ME with this clearly brewing? No flights no boats how do you suggest they are evacuated?
I did wonder at the amount of people on holiday out there, given this has been brewing the the background for quite a bit. We also have a large number of expats out, specific out that to avoid paying tax in the UK who now want to be evacuated
I love this line of people are out in that region to avoid tax, if you have a job in another country you pay tax as per that countries rules. If you are not employed in the UK then you are avoiding tax as you are not being paid anything in the country.
that’s fine, there not in the UK, but don’t expect the UK to come to the rescue when things go pear shaped.
Why not, the UK has a commitment to its citizens, it likes wasting billions to give to other countries to help those citizens through its foreign aid budgets. Why should it not assist people who have in probably 95%+ of cases paid into the tax system at some point?
We have a government who can find money to pay to give British territory away, who can pay to plant trees in Uganda, who can fund PHD’s for foreign nationals living in India, who has money to spare to paint rainbows on Police Cars and funding for the policing of naughty Tweets. Yet strangely doesn’t think the provisioning of air defence for an airbase in a volatile region full of psychopaths with drones and ballistic missiles is a priority. Perhaps the defintion of incompetence should be changed to just read “British Politician.”
Yep, pretty much.
And still, plenty will go on defending them.
Treason is a better word now, they are lying daily about increasing defence spending yet it is all an aspiration for sometime in the future. The new helicopter order is more of the same, a fraction of what it was going to be and at a ludicrous price and God knows when deliveries will be expected as I doubt there is any money to pay for them.
The NMH budget is not ‘ a fraction of what it was going to be.”, it has been around £bn from the outset.
Also have enough money to give free cash out to people who arent even technically allowed in the country but clearly priorities for votes are one thing over common sense.
I woke up this morning and read a DT headline ( article as usual is firewalled ) that Starmer is now saying Brit bases can be used to strike Iran.
If true, well, another U turn. How weak does HMG need to get?
This UKDJ article says Akrotiri has been reinforced in recent weeks by Radar Systems, CUAS systems, F35, and GBAD assets.
If so, all are limited in number.
The RAF has a couple of mobile radars with 1 ACC that can deploy, yet has a bloody big radar that can reportedly can see half of the Middle East on Mt Olympus, along side substantive intelligence assets sitting on Mt Troodos, the next peak along. Maybe these Drones are too small to show on radar, and probably give off little or no electronic signature.
CAUS, 34 Squadron of the RAF Regiment has two types, ORCUS and Rapid Sentry. ORCUS relies on jamming, Sentry is more kinetic, using LMM. Sentry was acquired with no fanfare and it’s unknown outside of official circles how many were bought, but it’s not likely to be many with HMG is it?
Assume both were deployed at Akrotiri. If not, can someone put Starmer, Reeves, and the Chiefs heads on sticks please for utter incompetence?
F35B we knew, due to it’s sensing capabilities.
GBAD, we’ve covered this countless times, Sky Sabre in pitiful numbers, for use of the Army in the field, so the Field Army, not fixed locations.
I’ve no idea of it’s capabilities against a Shahad.
SHORAD, again, only one Regiment, 12 RA, with Stormer HVM Starstreak and LMM, needed for the Army. A Troop I understand has been deployee in Iraq for years. The RM alao have a Troop.
I’m looking forward to the recriminations, Starmer running around in circles, Healey waffling stating the obvious, the Tories making hay out of it, which they have no right to do given their record on this, and the “lessons will be learned” statements and “new” emphasis on GBAD now a British facility has been hit.
There are countless GBAD AA gun systems out there, some British made, MoD has made not a peep on aquiring any of them.
Thankfully, no-one was hurt and the damage negligible.
Moving families elsewhere in Cyprus is interesting, the SFA for Akrotiri isn’t far away, and a Shahad could land there as much as on the Station itself.
It’s incompetence. Problem has been visible for a long while. Certainly long enough to justify a UOR. That might look like a gun solution for RAF Regiment or extending an existing system like Sky Sabre. What you cant do is just redeploy a radar without the means to shoot down the weapons the radar has detected. Anyone who advocates, or defends that ridiculous postion needs to be immediately pushed out of any office of responsibility. It’s the equivalence of buying a property in a dodgy area of town and fitting a door bell camera but being too miserly to buy a lock for your front door.
Carns.
Pollard.
Healey.
The chiefs.
They’ve all said similar, I was reading some absolute hogwash from Al Carns this morning on Twitter, and he’s an ex RM I believe.
I like to imagine a few politicians sat in an office somewhere, sweating buckets everytime you make a post like this.. “shit, he’s doing it again!!” 😳
Ha!
If it helps expose the dereliction of duty and utter incompetence of governments, over multiple administrations regards Defence It is all good.
Yes, yes it is.
No casualties thank God.
Not going to comment on the politics. UK air defence, or lack of, is a major issue that some of us have been banging on about for years.
What air defence do we have?
Missile defence is mainly located in the Royal Navy. Sea Ceptor provides short/medium range air defence of frigates and Sea Viper medium/long range air defence with limited anti ballistic capability from the limited number of T45 destroyers. The Army has a limited number of Sky Sabre (land based Sea Ceptor) to protect fielded forces and MPADs. This means the UK has no defensive missile systems to defend all UK naval and air bases let alone our major cities.
What do we need to have?
We need to develop an integrated air defence system with a mixture land based medium and long range air/ballistic missile defence batteries that can be deployed to protect vital fixed infrastructure locations such as air bases (including Akrotiri), naval bases and cover major cities. Sky Sabre is a good system for local AD and we need to develop or acquire a THAAD system for ballistic defence. Maybe 10 to 15 Sqns or Batteries which could be manned by the RAF Reserve or Army Reserve.
Action this day.
Agreed. RAF should definitely own the integrated air defence role. It’s a technical role and needs to be treated as such. They also need to equip and re-role the RAF Regiment to be able to employ some sort of gun air defence. Needs money and will and some sort of process which ejects the careers of those who obstruct it.
They used to be Rapier roles, but they got cut!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and just went to Filed Sqn’s, Now its a mixture. If any British SP had been hit or worse then the government would have to answer some serious questions. I suspect PMQ’s will be interesting unless Starmer throws his teddies out the cot and walks off, depends if he can handle the pressure which will be coming his way.
The RAF Regiment Rapier Sqns were cut by the previous Labour government to this one.
Starmer looks like a frightened Rabbit at all times, which in itself hardly inspires confidence, yet this shambles is only his fault insofar that his government talks lots but a acts little regards Defence.
The Tories sitting in oposition happily did sod all when they were in charge for 14 years, so really it is a bit rich to complain now.
My biggest beef, apart from doing bugger all, is how ministers highlight Typhoon when it shoots down Drones.
It is a case of using what exists, even if it’s use is utterly economical, rather than putting plans in place and then buying an integrated GBAD system where one doesn’t need to use sparse 80 million Typhoons and their AAM because next to nothing else exists.
Un economical.
Trust me I know, spent 4 years on a RAF Regt Sqn. Agree its every government to blame. Focus has been static Ops (Iraq/Afghan) now we are going back to Pre berlin wall, where defence has to be agile and capable. But defence spending was about 4% GDP back then I believe. Ukraine has plenty of GBAD systems which we could easily replicate and operate, but who will operate them as there is no funding for additional SP. Buying stuff is easy and cheap compared to through life support, and maybe you could maybe convince the chancellor to spend an extra ££££ this FY with a small % every year for maintenance etc. But it will be the additional SP which will be the additional cost for years to come which will add to the Defence budget. The other problem we (Military) are not good at is allowing SP to develop the system and actually enhance it withing the MOD, that is sent out to tender and usually costs us an arm and a leg from the manufacture. SP have the expertise and knowledge to do such, but not allowed to. Would save the MOD an absolute fortune, we used to have a system called GEMS way back but that fell by the wayside.
Thanks, Baz.
Cypriot government reporting two further drones heading towards Akrotiri on Monday morning were successfully intercepted.
That is significant, discounts the first being some sort of error.
I hope Starmer was wearing adult diapers when announcing that the US could use UK bases for “defensive purposes” because it sure like he was soiling himself while doing it.
😂
It’s true, though, Starmer had that ‘rabbit about to die’ look on his face when he made the announcement. And he’s going to publish the legal advice he’s using to cover his actions.
Was painful to watch, genuinely painful.
The irony is that the US / Israeli actions have caused far more damage to ally nations than Iran has caused in the decades before this. Global oil prices will shoot up hitting pretty much everyone’s pockets globally. All this and no clear end game that could end up with a more friendly regime.
Oh do one Steve. Iran had quite literally been getting away with murder for years. They needed dealing with ans they’re getting it!
Are they being dealed with? Time will tell but I suspect not.
Completely not true.
Care to expand? What damage has Iran done to other nations prior to this that exceed the damage that has happened as a result of it?
Iran has supported pretty much every terrorist movement active in the West including the IRA when they were active.
More recently, supplying and facilitating the Houthi in their attacks on unarmed merchant shipping (including Brtiish)
Iranian diplomatic convicted for bombing in Paris.
Iranian involvement in a grenade bombing in Stockholm
20 operations in the UK disrupted by MI5.
Similar numbers reported in France and Germany.
Nearly a decade or Iranian operations against British troops in Iraq.
Iranian support for Hezbollah and Hamas in their operations.
Iran has been operating pretty consistently against Britain and the West for decades.
The US heavily supported the IRA, so can’t really blame that on Iran, along with the soviets.
I fully agree they are a regime that needs to be dealt with but all that combined is not as much damage as has been done this last week.
Diplomatic solution was there and mediators were saying that Iran was conceding on many topics, but Israel wanted them wiped out and cornered trump. The guy that ripped up the last deal with Iran because he wanted to wipe out everything Obama has done.
Just a mess all round.
Greece is deploying its new frigate Kimon to Cyrpus to provide additionnal air defense
UK is missing in action. The Labour Government needs a new Defence Secretary. One who kicks a… and looks ahead.
Doesn’t matter who the defence secretary is his/ her hands are tied with all sorts of legal definitions and lack of money!
Bring Ben Wallace back, at least that guy knew what he was talking about and actually seemed to have the forces at heart when he was banging the drum trying to get more money for them.
So how many GBAD systems did he procure? And low-level air defence systems? And some extra troops to man them? What about deploying some to vulnerable forward bases like Akrotiri?
Answer:. Of course he didn’t do any of that, any more than his predecessors did in their 14 years of cost-cutting and running down the forces.
Starmer, Healey & Co arrived to find that the defence cupboard was bare and the forces couldn’t order much because they had a £17bn black hole in the procurement budget.
Don’t you just love the way that everyone wants to beat up Starmer for inheriting 14 years of shambolic procurement, disastrous cost-cutting and not turning the UK’s econony and growth round, the bounder has had a whole 18 months to perform some miracle and do the impossible!
Disagree, he presided over a continuation in the decimation of the armed force.
Zero ships launched.
RFA decimated from a personel point of view, our only fleet stores ship laid up likely for ever.
No air defence or even basic security for military bases.
No defence systems capable of intercepting ballistic missiles (One lucky T45 shot does not make the system capable).
14 years of neglect delay to the systems ordered and lack of ordering or actually building anything.
Look at Ajax, and it was the only armoured vehicle ordered for the army since 1997!
I used to think that about Wallace, upto the whole NATO job drama happened and it became clear he was just in it for his own personal gain.
It’s difficult to critise the government based on the limited facts we have. It seems we sent extra jets ahead of this and they should have been sufficient on their own.
We have refused the US to use our bases for an illegal war and the legal advice was published to back that up.
Would having a destroyer in the region have many any difference, we don’t know.
The Risk to RAF Akrotiri from Drones is now quite obvious,but we have a solution that no-one would have thought about.Information has been quite limited as to what Measures have been taken so far,it might be that Sky Sabre has already been moved there in some capacity,but it might not have.We have C17 and A400,what i would do is Fly some Ajax ( yes Ajax ) out there ASAP and use them as Moblie Anti-Drone Pill-boxes,their 40mm CTA Guns are about as good as you need to shoot down Drones.France has the right Ammunition if we have not bought any.
Ajax is not an operational platform at present, it had its approval withdrawn. Not to mention the whole program has been a joke from start to finish (which we haven’t reached yet).
I personally would not ask troops to go into a combat environment in it, it has underperformed so consistently and all assurances have turned out to be false so many times it’s just not a reliable platform.
Starstreak should be more than enough for the drone threat, assuming iran doesn’t attempt to saturate out defences. Especially when combined with the typhoons and f35b there. However we don’t know how the thing got through
Russia will be looking at what happened in AKI with interest knowing that there’s nothing protecting our CAS, Losssie or Brize against drones.
Our politicians are clowns
Other than the rest of Europe, which they would need to fly over.
Deploy from a vessel? Or maybe just launch 3x Kodiaks from a Blackjack at the Officer’s mess at Lossie, Brize, Faslane. As centres of gravity they’re all undefended.
It’s possible but if you are going to do it from such short range, even the best air defences wouldn’t help. That’s the issue Russia had, Ukraine were launching from inside their radar min range
But I do agree we urgently need to improve our air defensive assets.
Questions really need to be asked about the MOD and the RAF’s ability to protect it’s bases.
After a couple of idiots with a paint can were able to take out a Voyager last year with pretty much no consequences for themselves you’d expect that the RAF would have taken action to secure its bases better.
A drone attack on Akrotiri (or indeed any base in the UK) was entirely predictable, or indeed an attack by manned aircraft against Akrotiri.
That doesn’t even cover the poor state of UK Air defence in general.
The lack of AEW assests to detect or identify threats given the retirement of the E-3Ds and lack of operational E-7s (not that 3 is able to provide much of anything beyond bare minimum cover) the lack of sufficient Sky Sabre systems at RAF bases – it almost boggles the mind that one wasn’t present at Akrotiri.
SS should be present on the Falklands (I believe one is) Gibraltar and Akrotiri at a minimum.
The fact that this has not even been questioned in parliament is beyond a joke.
The naval side is equally embarrassing, firstly in terms of self defence of Akrotiri the idea that an RAF base needs a destroyer to go and protect it is embarrassing enough.
However the fact that we can only muster one destroyer, no RFA support vessel to go is beyond embarassing. France is sending a carrier group after an attack on British RAF base, let that sink in.
Every politician who approved the 2010 SDR and sat through the decimation of the armed forces over the last 15 years should hang their heads in shame.
👍 and no politician has been grilled on this by any media outlet.