RAF Akrotiri

Role today

RAF Akrotiri is a large Royal Air Force base in the Western Sovereign Base Area, one of the two parts of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, a British Overseas Territory on Cyprus. [1] Its only permanent flying unit is No. 84 Squadron’s search and rescueSAR GlossaryJoint terms: Search and rescue. The use of aircraft, surface craft, submarines, and specialized rescue teams and equipment to search for and rescue distressed persons on land or at sea in a permissive environment. helicopters, but it is the RAF’s base for operations across the eastern Mediterranean and Middle EastMiddle East TheatreThe Levant, Sinai, Iraq and the Persian Gulf: the Arab–Israeli wars, the Tanker War, the Gulf War, Iraq and Inherent Resolve, and Russia in Syria.: Typhoons flying for Operation Shader, tankers and transports, and surveillance aircraft and drones that come and go with each operation. [1] Two US Air Force U-2s are stationed there, still monitoring the Egypt–Israel ceasefire and flying missions in Central Command’s area. [1]

History

The station was built in the mid-1950s and was a base for the Suez Crisis in 1956, when its Meteor night fighters, Canberra photo-reconnaissanceReconnaissance GlossaryJoint terms: A mission undertaken to obtain, by visual observation or other detection methods, information about the activities and resources of an enemy or adversary, or to secure data concerning the meteorological, hydrographic, or… aircraft and Venom ground-attack aircraft were reinforced by more Canberras. [1] From 1957 to 1969 four Canberra squadrons gave Britain’s Baghdad Pact, later CENTO, allies first a conventional and from November 1961 a nuclear strikeStrike GlossaryJoint terms: An attack to damage or destroy an objective or a capability. force, and two Vulcan squadrons followed until 1975. [1] After 1966 Akrotiri was the only RAF flying station left on the island. [1] The Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 led the UK to withdraw most of its aircraft. [1]

US U-2s arrived in August 1970 to watch the Suez Canal ceasefire, and after the Yom Kippur War of 1973 the operation, OLIVE HARVEST, became permanent. [1] Akrotiri received American casualties from the 1983 BeirutBeirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport AirfieldLebanon's only working commercial airport: the 1968 Israeli raid, the 1983 barracks bombing and the 2006 runway strikes. barracks bombing, was used in the US strike on Libya in 1986, evacuated people from Lebanon in 2006 and staged support aircraft for the 2011 Libya campaign. [1] Tornados flew from it over Iraq from August 2014 and RAF aircraft struck the Islamic State from September; it supported the 2018 missile strikes on Syria, and on 12 January 2024 four of its Typhoons struck Houthi targets in Yemen. [1]