UK continues Iran war involvement by sending HMS Dragon to protect RAF base in Cyprus

The Ministry of Defence has deployed HMS Dragon to help protect RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.

HMS dragon leaving Portsmouth for the Mediterranean sea. pic.twitter.com/885WArWCQK

— Christopher Cope (@Christo73187918) March 11, 2026

It will take at least five days for the Type 45 destroyer to reach its destination.

Last week, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said it was sending the HMS Dragon to the eastern Mediterranean along with two Wildcat helicopters.

The decision followed an alleged drone attack on RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. The attack caused no casualties.

Cyprus

As the Canary previously reported, Starmer initially refused to involve the UK. Hours later – under pressure from the US – he conceded that the US could use UK military bases – effectively bringing the UK into the war.

The Royal Navy website describes the Dragon as:

capable of an array of duties outside of her air defence role, from providing disaster relief to counter-narcotics boarding operations.
Having undergone a major upgrade to her weapons, IT, communications and marine engineering systems, HMS Dragon is currently undergoing sea trials in preparation for her third overseas deployment.

The HMS Dragon is fitted with a Sea Viper missile system. It can launch eight missiles in under 10 seconds and guide up to 16 missiles simultaneously. Wildcat helicopters from the 815 Naval Air Squadron, equipped with Martlet missiles capable of taking out drones, will assist it.

Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron also ordered France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, to move from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean. It’s an air wing, and medium-sized warships will escort it. 

Meanwhile, the government has told RFA Lyme Bay to prepare to deploy. It is a:

Bay Class landing ship dock of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. She is capable of delivering a significant fighting force anywhere in the world.

The vessel is equipped with an aviation platform and medical facilities. This enables it to support evacuations and medical treatment.

Sir Richard Dalton told Declassified UK that British assets in the region were now legitimate targets of Iran.

The regional power:

will not distinguish [between] attacks to its missiles and other wider attacks on its political, military and economic institutions and leaders.

They will say that these are attacks facilitated by Britain on Iran as part of the United States campaign to destroy the Islamic Republic.

Another illegal war

The UK claimed to stay out of Israel and the US’s illegal and unprovoked attacks on Iran. Starmer quickly changed his mind and is now allowing Trump to station US military planes at UK RAF bases. However, Starmer approved the “specific and limited defensive purpose” of destroying Iran’s missiles “at source”.

Despite this, only yesterday, March 11, a bystander spotted US military personnel and ground crew preparing “explosive ordnance” at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.

Starmer is making the UK a legitimate target.

If your bases launch operations, your runways become targets.”

This means:

If a country allows its military bases to be used for attacks, then the enemy will consider those bases legitimate targets.

So the base itself becomes part of the battlefield. https://t.co/JErt48O4ze

— Himanshu Jain (@HemanNamo) March 10, 2026

In a war that no one voted for.

Don’t think anyone voted for this https://t.co/jwA5L3Cc5w

— miss.andry (@L3m0nGr4bb) March 10, 2026

Starmer is inadvertently signing the UK up for an illegal war that no one has voted on. He is making the UK a target, whilst the US and Israel bomb thousands of civilians in Iran. Meanwhile, he is still allowing Israel to systematically carpet-bomb and starve Gazans.

But what’s one more illegal war for a country that is already up to its eyes in colonial shit? Starmer has no backbone – and civilians in the Middle East are going to pay the price for it.

Featured image via ITV News