Britain not ruling out future strikes on Iran missile sites, officials indicate | US-Israel war on Iran
Britain has not ruled out taking part in future attacks on Iran’s ballistic missile launch sites, officials said.
US heavy bombers are expected to arrive at UK bases at Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands and Fairford in Gloucestershire in the next few days, from where they will attack Iran’s underground “missile cities”.
It has also been revealed that the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Dragon, which Keir Starmer promised on Tuesday to be sent to Cyprus to defend the country and Britain’s air bases there, is not expected to be ready to set sail from Portsmouth until next week.
At a briefing, Western officials did not rule out Britain’s involvement in striking missile depots. “I’m not going to rule anything out because we don’t know what’s going to happen from day to day, week to week as this progresses,” one of them said.
Destroying Iran’s ballistic missile stockpiles and launch capabilities is one of the key objectives of the joint US and Israeli bombing campaign, but most of them are buried underground and difficult to hit with more conventional weapons.
One option is to fly US air force B-2 or B-52 bombers armed with bunker buster munitions from two sites in the UK, and this may require additional support from the RAF beyond the simple provision of bases.
Western officials believe Iran has “a few more days’ worth” of ballistic missiles in its stockpile if it continues firing them at current rates. However, it may not be able to do this due to ongoing US-Israeli attacks. Iran may also choose to preserve stockpiles to preserve some of its military capabilities.
Gulf states and other regional allies have fired Patriot air defense missiles “quite a bit” in self-defense, the official added. No figures were given, but it was emphasized that the size of the stocks would be a cause for concern for countries exposed to Iran’s missile and drone attacks.
This would justify Iran’s increased rate of attacks on launch sites, the official added. “Therefore, it is crucial to accelerate the pace at which these launch and launch sites are targeted and destroyed,” they said.
Britain did not initially join the US-Israeli bombing campaign, which began with the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday. But on Sunday night Keir Starmer partially changed his mind.
The Prime Minister said the US would allow the US to destroy Iranian missiles “at the source” by flying missions from UK bases to target “storage depots or Iranian launchers”. [are] “It is used to fire missiles,” he said, adding that this was a “specific and limited defense purpose.”
HMS Dragon has been in dry dock for maintenance and is currently in the process of loading weapons. Travel time to Cyprus is between five and seven days; meaning it may not arrive until the end of next week, nearly two weeks after RAF Akrotiri was first attacked.
A Shahed-type drone breached the air defenses of the base in Cyprus on Monday, causing minor damage when it crashed onto the runway despite counter-drone units being deployed at the site. Later the same day, two more drones were seized.
Cypriot officials stated that the unmanned aerial vehicle that hit the runway came from a Hezbollah-controlled area of Lebanon. This has not been confirmed by the UK Ministry of Defence, but a launch from Iran has been ruled out.
