British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on Thursday night confirmed that his country’s Akrotiri air force base in Cyprus had been used as the launchpad for missions aimed at engaging and shooting down drones fired from Iran. 

He shared to his social media an article published by British newspaper the Guardian, which had interviewed an unnamed British air force pilot based at Akrotiri who said he had on Tuesday night become the first British pilot to shoot down a target from an F-35 fighter jet.

Alongside the article, Starmer posted the words, “British heroes protecting British lives”.

The unnamed pilot’s story is corroborated by the British defence ministry’s statements about Tuesday’s operation. It had written at the time that the night’s engagement had marked “the first time a [Royal Air Force] F-35 has shot down a target on operations”.

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F-35 fighter jets have been stationed in Cyprus since last month, with six such aircraft having been deployed from the RAF’s base in Marham, in Norfolk, on the UK mainland, as part of what Starmer on Thursday described as the “moving of defensive assets” to the island in advance of a potential regional conflict.

Starmer had also said on Thursday that “I want to be really clear to everybody in Cyprus that we’re taking every measure that is needed to protect them, to protect the airbase, along with the other places in the region”, after he had faced criticism following a drone strike on the Akrotiri base on Monday.

After the drone strike, he had announced plans to deploy the HMS Dragon Type 45 destroyer warship and two AW159 Wildcat helicopters to Cyprus. 

The helicopters are expected to arrive on Friday, while a British defence ministry spokesperson told the Cyprus Mail on Wednesday that the British military is “working as fast as possible” in its efforts to ready the ship for deployment.

On Sunday night, Starmer had announced that his government would allow the United States to use its military bases – commonly understood to mean the Diego Garcia airbase in the Indian Ocean and the Fairford airbase in Gloucestershire, on the UK mainland – in its operations against Iran.

Following the drone strike on Monday, he then sought to clarify that British bases in Cyprus are “not being used by US bombers”, though he did stress that the drone had not been fired “in response to any decision that we have taken”.

Instead, he said, it is believed that the drone was fired before he had made his statements on Sunday, before landing after his statements concluded.

Later, when asked why the bases in Cyprus are not being used by US forces, he said they “are not suitable”.

“It is very important that this is made clear, because [Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides] and I have been discussing that,” he said