British RAF fighter jets intercepted and shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle in defense of Jordan and intercepted another drone heading for Bahrain overnight, the Ministry of Defense in London said on Monday, according to Sky News, CNN and The Guardian.
RAF planes (Royal Air Force – air forces of the United Kingdom, no) successfully shot down an unmanned aerial system “in defense of Jordan” and intercepted a drone heading for Bahrain, the statement issued by the British ministry said.
Britain also began flying defensive flights in support of the United Arab Emirates, the British ministry added.
The moves come after Britain announced it would deploy additional military resources to the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean to defend its allies and bases.
The Ministry of Defense also said on Monday that additional Wildcat helicopters had arrived in Cyprus after a British air base on the Mediterranean island was hit by a drone attack last week.
An update on UK operations in the Middle East, 09 March 2026. pic.twitter.com/dXbvxEn1iT
— Ministry of Defense 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) March 9, 2026
The US is using British military bases against Iran
On Saturday, the same ministry announced that the US armed forces began using British military bases for “targeted defensive operations aimed at preventing Iran from launching missiles into the region, which would endanger the lives of British people”.
In fact, starting Friday, B-1 bombers began arriving from the USA at the RAF base at Fairford, in southeast England.
The United Kingdom on Sunday approved the use by the United States of certain bases, such as the one mentioned, in the county of Gloucestershire, or Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, only after the American President Donald Trump criticized the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for not allowing the use of the respective complexes for the first strikes on Iran, AFP and Agerpres noted.
Last Wednesday, Starmer justified his decisions by showing that on February 28, when the US-Israeli attacks on Iran began, he was “not ready” to risk his country entering the war “without a legal basis and without a viable plan”.
An opinion poll published on Friday by the Survaiton institute shows that 56% of Britons support Starmer's first position, while only 27% think it is wrong; 49% want the UK to stay out of the Middle East conflict, protecting only its own interests, and 17% would prefer active engagement with the US and Israel; 20% want London to clearly oppose the war.
