UK military ‘working as fast as possible’ to deploy warship to Cyprus

The British military is “working as fast as possible” in its efforts to ready the HMS Dragon Type 45 destroyer warship for its deployment to Cyprus, a spokesperson for the British defence ministry said on Wednesday, but added it would not be deployed in Cyprus until next week.

Plans for its deployment to the island were announced by the country’s Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer the previous evening.

“The Royal Navy is working as fast as possible to prepare HMS Dragon for deployment, including resupplying her air defence missiles at our ammunition facility in His Majesty’s Naval Base in Portsmouth,” the spokesperson told the Cyprus Mail.

They added that the two AW159 Wildcat helicopters, which Starmer had also said would be sent to Cyprus, are set to be deployed “within days”, and that they will be armed with “Martlet drone-busting missiles”.

Those helicopters, they said, “will reinforce our Royal Air Force Typhoons, F-35B jets, ground-based counter-drone teams, radar systems, and Voyager refuelling aircraft [which are] already deployed”.

“Our jets are now flying continuous sorties to defend against indiscriminate Iranian strikes threatening UK people, interests, and bases,” they added.

Starmer had announced the deployment of the destroyer and the helicopters on Tuesday evening, saying that “the UK is fully committed to the security of Cyprus and British military personnel based there”, and that his government “will always act in the interest of the UK and our allies”.

That announcement came after British Armed Forces Minister Alistair Cairns had earlier told a press conference that “any threat that emanates from Iran, that threatens our British interests, or, more importantly, the hundreds of thousands of [British] citizens in the Middle East, we will neutralise that threat, and we won’t make any apologies for it”.

Later on Tuesday evening, Cyprus was the likely launchpad as British fighter jets engaged and shot down drones flying in Jordanian airspace.

The British defence ministry at the time announced that F-35 fighter jets which were operating in Jordanian airspace “shot down uncrewed aerial systems in defence of Jordan”.

This engagement, it said, “marks the first time a [Royal Air Force] F-35 has shot down a target on operations”, with the fighter jets having been supported by Typhoon jets and a Voyager air-to-air refuelling aircraft.

F-35 fighter jets have been stationed in Cyprus since last month, with six such aircraft having been deployed from the RAF’s base in Marham, in Norfolk, on the UK mainland, to Cyprus amid fears of a conflict erupting in the Middle East.