UK ‘taking every measure’ to protect Cyprus, Starmer says

The United Kingdom is “taking every measure” to protect Cyprus, the country’s Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Thursday, days after the British Akrotiri air force base on the island was hit by an Iranian-made drone.

“I want to be really clear to everybody in Cyprus that we’re taking every measure that is needed to protect them, to protect the airbase, along with the other places in the region,” he told a press conference at his official residence in London.

He also said on this matter that “there are protective measures in place” and which “have always been in place”, given that “we’ve obviously had an airbase there for a very long time”.

Additionally, he announced that two AW159 Wildcat helicopters are set to arrive on the island on Friday.

“Wildcat helicopters with anti-drone capabilities are arriving in Cyprus tomorrow,” he said, with the deployment of the helicopters having been announced on Tuesday, alongside the announcement of the deployment of the HMS Dragon Type 45 destroyer warship.

The warship is expected set sail for Cyprus from Portsmouth next week, with a British defence ministry spokesperson having told the Cyprus Mail on Wednesday that the British military is “working as fast as possible” in its efforts to ready the ship for deployment.

Starmer also repeated his assertions that the UK was not unprepared for the outbreak of the conflict in the Middle East, saying that “throughout January, we were moving defensive assets to Cyprus and Qatar”.

These assets, he said, included “fighter jets, air defence missiles, advanced radar, and systems to take down drones”, with these moves being made “to ensure we were in a heightened state of readiness in advance of any conflict beginning”.

“When the strikes began on Saturday, we immediately put those jets into the sky on a mission to protect our people and our allies in the region, and that is what they have done, flying over Cyprus and the wider region, shooting down multiple drones, at least one of which was heading towards a base housing British military personnel,” he said.

He added that British fighter jets were “in the sky again last night, over Jordan, Qatar, and other partners, refuelling in the air to prolong their mission”, while the military supply chains are “constantly resupplying our jets and our missile stores”.

On this front, Cyprus was the likely launchpad as British fighter jets engaged and shot down drones flying in Jordanian airspace on Tuesday night, with the British defence ministry at the time having announced that F-35 fighter jets “shot down uncrewed aerial systems in defence of Jordan”.

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, as part of what Starmer on Thursday described as the “moving of defensive assets” to the island in advance of a potential regional conflict.