“We’re working with our friends to try and deliver that de-escalation,” British Defense Minister Luke Pollard said in an interview Tuesday. The “purely defensive” deployment of an RAF Voyager to Saudi Arabia is intended to “ensure there’s no further escalation in the Red Sea, which could further risk our fuel prices,” he added.
“Much of our trade, both in goods and in energy, comes through that part of the world. And so, what happens in that part of the Middle East is absolutely vital for our own national security and our own economic security,” Pollard said, explaining why Britain responded to the Kingdom’s request for help.
Burnham emphasized that it’s a “time-limited agreement in terms of the assistance that we will provide, but we will keep it under review.”
The Ministry of Defense on Tuesday confirmed it had agreed to “provide an RAF Voyager air-to-air refuelling aircraft to support Saudi defensive activity” in the region. According to the British Royal Air Force (RAF), a Voyager provides strategic air support by allowing jets and other aircraft to refuel while in flight.
“It increases the operational tempo in terms of targeting strikes and being more flexible, and more agile in responding to changing situations on the ground,” he tells TIME.
Britain has historically held the role of “guarantor for maritime freedom of navigation all around the world,” says Krieg, describing the U.K.’s latest attempt to ease tensions over the Red Sea as an example of the government “stepping up to the plate.”
Krieg says the move signifies a small success for Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states as they seek to strengthen bilateral security relationships beyond their traditional reliance on the U.S. This is “the worst security situation the Saudis have been in a very long time,” he notes.
The long-standing alliance between the U.K. and Saudi Arabia
The U.K. and Saudi Arabia share an alliance that dates back to almost a century ago.
Britain was among the first governments to recognize the independent territories of Saudi Arabia through the Treaty of Jeddah in 1927, which helped solidify the boundaries of the nascent kingdom ahead of the formation of modern Saudi Arabia in 1932.
According to the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), the published value of U.K. arms export licenses to Saudi Arabia from the start of the bombing campaign in March 2015 through the April 2022 truce was £7.1 billion ($9.4 billion).
In late 2023, the Houthis started disrupted shipping in the Red Sea, targeting cargo ships they said were linked to Israel, in what they described as a show of support for Palestinians in Gaza. Amid concerns over the impact on the world economy, the U.S. and U.K. joined forces in January 2024, striking multiple Houthi targets in Yemen. In April 2025, the U.K. government participated in another joint operation with the U.S. against a Houthi military facility in Yemen.
The U.K. Strategic Export Controls Annual Report of 2025 described the military relationship with Saudi Arabia as a “longstanding” partnership providing “Typhoon, Tornado, and Hawk aircraft, mine countermeasure vessels, and associated munitions, infrastructure, logistics and manpower support packages.”
“Saudi Arabia is seen here in London as a sort of leader of the Sunni Arab world, and as such, stability and security in Saudi is ultimately very closely linked to stability of the entire region,” Krieg says, adding that disruptions to the Kingdom are viewed “as a major threat to regional stability, and the stability of markets.”
U.S. President Donald Trump is understood to have received requests from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to strike the Houthi rebels. According to the New York Times, Trump reportedly considered launching strikes against the Houthis over the weekend, before ultimately deciding against it. TIME has reached out to the White House for comment.
“If it comes down to it, the United States will always stand with Saudi Arabia and support them because we have an agreement with them to do so,” he said, referencing the U.S. economic and defense partnership with Saudi Arabia signed last November, that deepened co-operation between the two countries.
Fears mount over global energy supply as Houthis advance
In the past few weeks, the Houthis have captured Yemen’s port city of Mokha and the strategic Perim Island, which sits in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. If Houthis were to assume control of the strait, shipping companies could be forced to travel via South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope—a longer, costlier route.
However, recent crossings have been marred by uncertainty over the potential threat posed by the Houthis. Data shared with TIME by Kpler, a commodities data and analytics firm, showed an estimated 34 vessels transited the Bab el-Mandeb on Sept. 15, a drop from the estimated 53 crossings recorded on July 15th.
Burnham and other U.K. officials have framed Britain’s defensive support partly around the potential economic consequences at home. The average price of petrol rose by 9.1 pence per litre between July and August 2026, compared with a rise of 0.3 pence per litre between July and August 2025, according to data from the Office of National Statistics.
“What Americans call gas and what we call petrol, if that goes up, think how many goods to market are taken by heavy lorries on petrol. It can push up the price of everything: shipping, road transit, energy, all kinds of industrial production and many consumer products,” he says. “Oil is the lifeblood of the world economy, the longer you restrict the supply, the higher the price goes, the more inflationary pressure there is on everything, and that affects Britain, but it affects the whole system. It's like a heart attack in a human body, suddenly it's not being pumped round."
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