London, Thanasis Gavos

Two pairs of Typhoon FGR4 fighter jets which took off from the Akrotiri base in Cyprus are believed to be those taking part on behalf of the United Kingdom in the international operation to defend Israel against the Iranian attack on Saturday night.

As Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed on Sunday, British fighters were shot down “number” of Iranian attack drones. According to the Telegraph, that number was between ten and twenty.

The jets took off from the British base as part of Operation Shader, the ongoing operation against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

Their main mission was to cover the positions of the American aircraft that rushed to the defense of Israel. However, as it turns out, at a meeting of the emergency response committee of Cobra situations in Downing Street ton Friday, Britain’s political leadership had, following a legal recommendation, given Typhoon operators the additional mandate to shoot down Iranian drones that would enter their area of ​​responsibility.

This field was the airspace of Iraq and Syria, where the downing took place. British fighters were not deployed over Israel, as the British Ministry of Defense says.

Typhoon operatorssupported by a Voyager-type aircraft for aerial refueling, had taken part in Operation Shader several times in the past, had been briefed on the special conditions of the weekend and were on alert.

It was the first “air combat mission” for Britain’s Royal Air Force since the Falkland Islands War in 1982, a Times source said. At the time, Harrier-type aircraft were involved in air combat with Argentine fighters.

The airspace in which the British Typhoons were deployed, the Telegraph reports, was determined using signals provided by security intelligence services from Agios Nikolaos Station, inside the British base at Dekelia, where the British maintain a “listening station” covering the middle east.

Each Typhoon aircraft is capable of carrying six medium-range missiles and two shorter-range air-to-air missiles.

Operators also rely heavily on the highly advanced HMSS targeting and targeting system built into their ‘bionic’ helmet.

Asked if the British would participate in the defense of Israel against Iran again, Foreign Minister David Cameron initially answered in the affirmative in the event of new attacks, adding, however, that these decisions are under constant evaluation.