AFP — Britain is sending short-range air defence systems to the Gulf to help counter Iranian missile attacks, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday.
“We’re deploying short range air defence systems to Bahrain at speed,” Starmer told a parliamentary committee, adding the UK was “doing the same with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia”.
The UK is working with industry to “distribute air defence missiles to Gulf partners”, which have faced waves of Iranian barrages in retaliation for US-Israeli strikes, and has embedded airspace specialists there, Starmer said.
Defence minister John Healey told parliament the country would be deploying its Rapid Sentry anti-drone system to Kuwait.
He called this a “battle-tested ground-based air defence missile system that has already proved highly effective for UK forces taking down drones in the region”.
A British warship, HMS Dragon, has also arrived in the eastern Mediterranean to defend Cyprus, Healey said.
Britain deployed the vessel following criticism over a perceived slow response to a drone attack on Britain’s Akrotiri base in southern Cyprus after the United States and Israel launched their war against Iran on February 28.
The UK now has more military jets in the region “than at any time in the last 15 years” and has boosted air defence personnel in Cyprus by 500, Healey said.
He added that UK pilots had now spent nearly 900 hours flying in the region “in defence of Cyprus, Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates” as Iran has unleashed volleys of drones at countries in the region.
– ‘Keeping UK safe’ –
The UK government is allowing Washington to use its bases in Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands and Fairford in southwest England to fly US bombing missions targeting Iranian “missile sites and capabilities being used to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz”.
Britain is determined to play a “leading role in securing the strait so commercial ships can move freely and confidently again”, its defence minister said, referring to the strategic chokepoint through which much of the world’s crude oil and natural gas passes.
Iran on Friday launched two missiles towards the Diego Garcia base, Healey said, but neither reached their target and “normal operations continue”.
“I totally condemn Iran’s reckless attacks. Iran must stop, it must de-escalate. We want to see this war end now,” the minister said.
But he offered assurances, saying: “There is no assessment that we are being targeted in the UK”.
“We have the resources, we have the alliances in place in order to keep the United Kingdom safe from any kind of attacks.”
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