Britain will deploy Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter jets to Saudi Arabia to fly defensive patrols against Houthi missile and drone attacks, the UK Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday, October 20, in a significant expansion of London’s military support to the kingdom.
Defensive role only, London says
According to the ministry’s statement, the jets “will fly defensive counter air missions to support the protection of Saudi cities and critical national infrastructure against aerial attack.” The ministry stressed that the aircraft will operate in a defensive role and “will not conduct offensive strikes against the Houthis,” the Iran-aligned group that controls much of northern Yemen.
The package, approved by Defence Secretary Wes Streeting, also includes an Atlas A400M transport aircraft to move defence equipment inside Saudi Arabia and a team of British military advisers to work alongside Saudi staff officers. Officials did not disclose how many Typhoons would deploy or where they would be based.
Britain is also extending by 90 days the air-to-air refuelling support it began providing to Saudi air operations last month, when it announced the dispatch of an RAF Voyager tanker. That earlier package did not include combat aircraft.
“The continuing attacks from the Houthis on our ally Saudi Arabia are absolutely despicable,” Streeting said. He added that the targeting of the airport in Riyadh “shows the lengths the Houthis are going to escalate the situation in the region.” The ministry described Houthi efforts to destabilise the region as “unacceptable,” warning that the group’s conduct was deepening Yemen’s humanitarian crisis, and noted that instability in the Gulf can feed through to British households via energy prices and the cost of living.
Riyadh airport in the firing line
The decision follows weeks of escalating cross-border attacks. Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport has been targeted around 20 times since the start of October, according to figures cited by AFP and the Saudi-led coalition. One of the strikes killed more than a dozen people and wounded more than 300, disrupting flights at the kingdom’s main gateway.
Attacks have continued this week. On Tuesday, coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki said a ballistic missile launched toward Riyadh had been “intercepted and destroyed,” Al Arabiya reported, after the national early warning platform briefly alerted residents of the capital. Air-raid alerts had also sounded in Riyadh on Monday night, The National reported.
Yemen’s war flared up again in September after a truce that had held for several years collapsed. Saudi Arabia has led a coalition supporting Yemen’s internationally recognised government since 2015. Riyadh, the Yemeni government and Washington accuse Iran of arming the Houthis, a charge Tehran denies.
Gulf neighbours close ranks
The British announcement coincided with a show of regional solidarity. In a phone call on Tuesday, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and his Kuwaiti counterpart, Sheikh Jarrah Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, condemned continued Houthi attacks on civilian areas in the kingdom and affirmed their joint stance against threats to the security and stability of both countries, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
The same day, the Saudi Cabinet, meeting in Riyadh, welcomed a UN Security Council presidential statement condemning Houthi attacks on Saudi civilian facilities, airports and energy infrastructure, Al Arabiya reported.
Limits of the mission
Saudi Arabia already operates its own Typhoon squadrons, and Streeting said the new deployment builds on British equipment and personnel already present in the kingdom. London also stressed on Tuesday that there is no military solution to the conflict in Yemen.
The deployment nonetheless marks a step up from the logistical and refuelling support offered in September. It places British combat aircraft directly in the air defence of Saudi cities at a time when Riyadh is facing a sustained campaign of missile and drone fire and other partners, including Egypt, are weighing their own contributions.
