A Royal Navy destroyer is expected in Cyprus next week after Keir Starmer announced it would be sent to defend the country and British bases there after hostile drones targeted RAF Akrotiri on Monday.
The prime minister said that HMS Dragon, currently in the Channel, would be deployed alongside two Wildcat helicopters with counter-drone capabilities, after a phone call to the country’s president, Nikos Christodoulides.
The British decision comes a few hours after France promised to make a similar military deployment to Cyprus, though some experts said it was a surprise the UK had not sought to reinforce its regional interests earlier.
John Foreman, a former UK defence attache to Moscow, said the UK had appeared to decide to largely ignore the highly visible US regional military buildup ahead of the US-Israel attack on Iran on Saturday.
“That the UK is now ‘considering’ sending a destroyer to the eastern Mediterranean is a clear indication one should have been there already,” Foreman said.
He said the decision “appears driven more by news that the French are sending ships to the area. The MoD has consistently been behind the power curve and is now scrambling to catch up. A failure of planning, of intelligence, and of foresight,” Foreman added.
The Conservative shadow defence secretary, James Cartlidge, echoed that criticism, saying: “We need the highly capable air defence it [HMS Dragon] provides to protect RAF Akrotiri. It begs the question: why wasn’t she already there?”
The prime minister’s spokesperson said adequate defences were in place in Cyprus already, adding that the assets deployed “include radar systems, air defence and F-35 jets”. He said: “That is a significant level of defensive capability to our bases in Cyprus.”
It would take five to seven days for the vessel to reach Cyprus from Portsmouth, as it travels at about 30 knots (34.5mph), although it was not immediately clear how ready the destroyer was to sail.
A Shahed-type drone breached air defences at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus on Monday, causing minor damage as it crashed on the runway, even though counter-drone units were deployed on site. Two other drones were intercepted later that day.
The US has given no indication how long it intends to continue bombing Iran, but on Monday night Donald Trump said the war could last four to five weeks, though the ability of Iran and its proxies to fight back may not last much longer.
The UK did not participate in the original US-Israel joint attack on Iran, which began on Saturday morning with the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and several other significant figures, bombed while holding a meeting in Tehran.
But the UK has become gradually dragged in, shooting down incoming drones in Qatar and Iraq over the weekend in defensive operations. Then on Sunday, Starmer said he would allow the US to bomb Iranian missile sites from British bases.
British personnel continue to be engaged in defensive operations. In the past 24 hours, RAF F-35 pilots shot down Shahed drones over Jordan using a £200,000 Asraam missile, while a Typhoon pilot shot down a drone directed at Qatar. British forces also took down drones in Iraqi airspace heading towards western forces in the country.
HMS Dragonis one of three available Type 45 destroyers and is designed to stop incoming missiles and drones. Last May, the warship intercepted a supersonic missile in an exercise off the Scottish coast.
France has already agreed to send a frigate and anti-drone systems to Cyprus, Cypriot government officials said. A request has also been made for support from Germany, which is under consideration.
No large Royal Navy warships are in the Middle East or have been deployed to the region so far. A single mine hunter, HMS Middleton, is based in Bahrain.
Cypriot sources said the drone that hit the runway is believed to have been flown from territory in Lebanon controlled by Hezbollah, a pro-Iranian proxy group, although that has not yet been confirmed by the Ministry of Defence.
Cypriots living near Akrotiri were advised to shelter after the first drone attack, and families of UK service personnel are being moved off the base as a security precaution.
Images circulating on social media appeared to show that the drone that hit the runway had a Russian-made antenna but this has not been confirmed.
Earlier in the day, it had been thought that another destroyer, HMS Duncan, would be sent to Cyprus but in the end HMS Dragon was chosen. The warship appeared in the James Bond movie No Time to Die, firing missiles on to a poison island on the orders of the head of MI6 and apparently killing 007 in the process.
