A Royal Navy warship which can simultaneously destroy 16 hostile missiles or drones is being deployed to Cyprus after Britain’s military base on the island came under attack from Iran.
HMS Dragon, one of the world’s best equipped air defence ships, will set sail as soon as possible to protect the Eastern Mediterranean from Tehran and its allies.
Two RAF Wildcat helicopters, equipped with anti-drone Martlet missiles, are also being deployed to defend RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.
The British base was hit by a Shahed drone on Sunday, believed to have been fired by Iran-backed Hezbollah.
While no one was injured in the attack, it triggered alarm that Akrotiri could come under further bombardment as Tehran responds to the US-Israeli military action.
In a phone call with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides on Tuesday, Sir Keir Starmer expressed outrage at what he said was a “deeply concerning example of the highly dangerous, indiscriminate attacks by Iran and its proxies taking place across the region”.
State-of-the-art warship
HMS Dragon is one of the Navy’s six Type 45 air defence destroyers and has recently undergone a refit, making it a state-of-the-art capability of Britain’s Armed Forces.
It has a Welsh dragon on its bow and is crewed by more than 200 people.
Like all six Type 45 destroyers, Dragon is equipped with a Sea Viper anti-air missile system, which can detect, track and destroy aerial threats including supersonic missiles and drones.
Sea Viper can launch eight missiles in under 10 seconds and guide up to 16 missiles simultaneously, using a multi-function spherical radar, and a long-range radar, to detect threats as far as 250 miles away.
The warships also have Harpoon anti-ship missiles for threats from the water, as well as a large flight deck for helicopters.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) declined to say when the destroyer would arrive in the Eastern Med for security reasons, but it is expected to be within days.
Elite drone-busting helicopters
A Wildcat helicopter firing a Martlet missile, a key component in the UK’s anti-drone capabilities (Photo: Unaisi Luke/UK MoD)Two Royal Navy Wildcat helicopters, equipped with Martlet missiles that can destroy hostile drones, are also being deployed to Cyprus alongside HMS Duncan.
The helicopters will be able to hunt and shoot down aerial threats, adding a powerful counter-drone capability to the region, the MoD said.
Wildcats have powerful engines that allow them to operate in extreme weather conditions and can perform anti-surface warfare and anti-submarine roles. They have state-of-the-art sensors including a nose-mounted MX-15 Wescam Electro Optical Device that enables the pilot to detect targets at significant ranges during day and night.
Defence Secretary John Healey said: “We are moving quickly to further reinforce our defensive presence in the Eastern Mediterranean.
“HMS Dragon brings world-class air defence capability, and our Wildcat helicopters are armed with Martlet missiles to counter the growing drone threat.
“I am deeply proud of the professionalism and bravery of our Armed Forces personnel who have in recent days successfully taken action across the region to protect our allies and defend British interests.”
RAF planes take out drones over Jordan
RAF F-35B jets shot down Iranian drones over Jordan on Monday and Tuesday – the first time an RAF F-35 has destroyed a target on operations.
The F-35s were supported by Typhoon jets and a Voyager tanker aircraft.
A British counter-drone unit neutralised drones in Iraqi airspace heading towards coalition forces, whilst an RAF Typhoon operating with the joint UK-Qatar 12 Squadron shot down an Iranian one-way attack drone directed at Qatar using an air-to-air missile on Monday, the MoD said.
Where is the rest of the UK’s capability?
Both of the Royal Navy’s aircraft carriers are currently undergoing maintenance. The HMS Queen Elizabeth has been in and out of dry dock since 2024, while the HMS Prince of Wales is out of action following an eight month-long deployment to the Indo-Pacific, Middle East and the Mediterranean.
The Prince of Wales is due to be sent to close to the Arctic Circle later this year to protect British and Nato interests in the High North.
Out of nine active subs, only two appear to be currently active and six are undergoing intense maintenance that will keep them out of action for potentially years, according to The i Paper research.
The UK’s only active non-Trident sub, HMS Anson, is in Australia.
An RAF Typhoon at the Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus takes off for operations in the Middle East this month. The base has been targetted as part of Iran’s retaliatory strikes (Photo: Joshua Whiting/MoD/AFP)Fears over delay and overstretch
The deployment to Cyprus follows days of criticism of the Prime Minister over his response to the US-led military action against Iran, which began on Saturday.
After initially refusing permission for the US to use British bases, Starmer on Sunday allowed them to be used for defensive strikes against Iran’s missile sites.
The drone attack came after Starmer’s announcement, but Downing Street has insisted that it was launched beforehand, meaning it was not in retaliation.
But experts have still said that the UK has been slow to respond to the crisis in the Middle East.
Tobias Ellwood, a former Tory defence minister and ex-chair of the Defence Select Committee, said the deployment of the destroyer was welcome but “overdue”.
He said that it was time for Britain to “get off its high horse” over the war in Iran, adding: “Much as we may not like how we got here, we are now involved, we have got skin in the game.
“We may as well make it clear that regime change is in everybody’s interests.
“The deployment is overdue. It shows how overstretched our Armed Forces are. We have only three working Type 45s and they are what we need to deploy to the region to provide protection against Shahed drones.”
Ellwood said the Defence Investment Plan, which had originally been slated for publication autumn 2025 but has been delayed several times, also needed to be published urgently.
“This is coming very late in the day, it takes ages to build a ship.”
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Ellwood said the outbreak of war in the Middle East showed that the UK did not have enough capabilities to cover crises in both that region and in the High North to repel the growing threat from Russia.
Tan Dhesi, the Labour Chair of the Commons Defence Committee, said: “It’s clear the Prime Minister must do all he can to protect UK citizens, military bases, and to defend our allies and national interests. In this fast-paced situation, I would expect the security of our bases to be kept under regular review to ensure the safety of our Armed Forces personnel and their families.
“As is convention, the Government must seek the consent of the House of Commons if broader offensive military action is on the table.
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