The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in its Tuesday 20 October update that Royal Air Force (RAF) Eurofighter Typhoon jets will fly defensive counter-air missions (patrols to shoot down incoming missiles, drones and aircraft) over Saudi Arabia and "will not conduct offensive strikes against the Houthis", alongside an A400M transport aircraft and military advisers1. The same update extends "air-to-air refuelling support for Saudi defensive air operations including to degrade Houthi military targets in Yemen". Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said: "today I have approved further UK military support."
The Typhoon line rules out strikes. The MoD calls the tanker work defensive but sets no such limit, so British tankers may now fuel Saudi jets on bombing runs. Britain first named Typhoons for the Gulf in May, alongside HMS Dragon for Hormuz.
At home, Counter Terrorism Policing re-arrested two of the seven men held over the suspected plot against RAF Fairford on 20 October, a British man aged 24 and a British-Iranian man aged 252. The offence is under Section 3 of the National Security Act 2023: conduct "likely to materially assist a foreign intelligence service". Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor said "we consider it highly likely that there is Iranian state involvement". No one has been charged. Prime Minister Andy Burnham had told Parliament on 12 October that the suspected plot was "almost certainly directed" by Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
