Update: NewsGhana reported on 3 March 2026 that Britain had ordered the deployment of HMS Dragon to Cyprus following an Iranian drone strike on RAF Akrotiri. The warship has now arrived.
Royal Navy destroyer HMS Dragon has reached the eastern Mediterranean and begun operational integration into Cyprus’s air defence, British Defence Secretary John Healey confirmed to Parliament on Monday, 23 March 2026, almost three weeks after an Iranian drone struck the Royal Air Force (RAF) base at Akrotiri.
Addressing Members of Parliament, Healey said the destroyer would work alongside allied forces from the United States, France, and Greece to bolster protection for the British sovereign base. He also disclosed that RAF and Navy pilots had accumulated nearly 900 flying hours defending Cyprus, Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, and that Britain currently has more military jets in the region than at any point in the past 15 years.
The Defence Secretary added that an additional 500 air defence personnel had been deployed to Cyprus as part of the wider British response to the escalating regional crisis.
Healey also revealed a new development involving British interests further afield, telling Parliament that two Iranian missiles had been launched toward Diego Garcia, the joint British and American military base in the Indian Ocean. Both were intercepted before reaching their target. “Neither got close to Diego Garcia,” he said. “The UK was not required to take action and normal operations continue.”
HMS Dragon, a Type 45 air defence destroyer with a crew of around 200, departed Portsmouth on 10 March following a six-day emergency refit that compressed what is normally a six-week process. The warship stopped at Gibraltar on 17 March to take on stores before continuing its voyage. During the transit, allied warships from France, Greece, and the Netherlands helped maintain air defence coverage over Cyprus.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, responding to criticism that Cyprus had been left exposed in the weeks before Dragon’s arrival, said military cooperation with Nicosia had never been closer. He confirmed he had spoken with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, and reiterated that RAF Akrotiri would not be made available for any broader offensive operations by the United States against targets inside Iran.
The Iranian drone that struck RAF Akrotiri on 2 March is believed to have been launched by an Iran-backed militia operating from western Iraq or Lebanon. The attack damaged a hangar close to residential areas on the base but caused no fatalities.
