Exclusive: PM on standby to send warplanes to Gulf as Iranian tensions rise

Ah...... I wonder if that would explain the strange movement we've seen here lately! This week, we had bunches of big military helicopters pass over our house three days in a row. Though our mountain pass is often used by practicing Rafales, we've never seen helicopters here before.

We've got a few fighter pilot friends, maybe we'll call them and see what they know.

reply to post by DarknStormy

Oh no, the Brits are coming to town Everyone should be scared now....

Considering us brits are the 3rd largest nuclear power in the wolrd, be-hide american and russian, and with our CASD we can strike at anyone at anytime on the planet, i should hope other nations are scared when we make a move.

I expect that the RAF Typhoons will be back in the UK in the weeks running up to Xmas. All I see is bog-standard deployment for the yearly leadership course in UAE and the use of the jets in an exercise in Oman.

The first batch of RAF Eurofighter Typhoon were noted transiting from RAF Leuchars, Scotland on October 29th.

From the aviation enthusiast community. Noted as RAFAIR 9 series call signs (9631, 9632, 9633) on the radio heading out from UK airspace and transiting south through France.

RAF Typhoons

ZJ913/QO-M was 9631
ZJ935/DJ was 9632
ZJ925/QO-R was 9633

The second batch will probably fly out this week for the yearly exercises either from RAF Coningsby or RAF Leuchars?

Mention of the exercises and deployment by the Secretary of State for Defence.

www.mod.uk...

Speech delivered by Secretary of State for Defence at the Royal United Services Institute Air Power Conference, Church House, Dean's Yard, Westminster on Thursday 1 November 2012. ...... and soon Typhoons from RAF Leuchars will be joining exercises in UAE and Oman.

reply to post by stumason


The only thing I can think of now is ..... "Learnt".

Don't we have UAE exercises every year?

'The Ministry of Defence said in a statement: “The UK regularly deploys Typhoon to UAE as part of our routine exercise programme and to demonstrate our military commitment to UAE and the security of the wider region. We have a mutual interest with our GCC [Gulf] partners in ensuring peace and stability in the region, and exercises such as this allow us to practice working together.” The MoD added: “These deployments are not due to our concerns over Iran’s nuclear programme. As we continue to make clear, the Government does not believe military action against Iran is the right course of action at this time, although no option is off the table.”

'Considering', 'possible'.

We send Typhoons to the UAE on exercise regularly.

reply to post by stumason

and, what they call it Iran tension is a big trade for USA and UK ! hmm and how much does Iran gain as a commission !!

There's nothing the ailing PM would like more than a good old war to boost his crippled popularity. I'm past caring about the war is it seems we are never told the truth anymore so we can never make a proper informed decision as to weather it is right. Therefore I have to revert to my default position and decide that on weather the conflict would be beneficial for the UK and I am sure it would be, hence the reason why we are trying to provoke them.

Originally posted by Hijinx
Errrrr.... I don't know why you think China's economy is fluttering, but using your own suggested routes, how are you going to stop the Chinese war machine rolling right across Asia, to Iran.

The same way we did during the Korean war....

China still uses the old doctrine of quantity over quality. They are slowly moving in the other direction but its going to take time.. Russia abandaoned that approach when the Soviet Union fell and they are still in the process of revamping their military and bringing it up to date.

As for the Chinese advance across Asia into the ME / near east areas, the movement of that many units requires a lot of resources. As has been stated time and again China is formidable when it comes to a regional conflict, however they have massive issues when it comes to force projection outside the region.

Their navy is in transition from a brown water to blue water and they dod not have the airlifft capacity to project force.

It ones of THE main reason they have so many missiles pointed at Tiawan. They are unable to launch a sea or land invasion simply because they cant move the necessary number of soldiers to secure a beachhead.

The path from West China into the ME is pretty rough terrain... Any movement through those areas, in the numbers required to sustain a large conflict, is going to be noticed by satellites, locals, etc. The element of surpise is gone and by the time they reach the area I doubt they are going to arrive untouched.

Personally I dont think China is going to risk its own neck in order to save Iran or Syria.


As for their economy all you ahve to do is check the regional news outlets around China in addition to the Chinese versions of citizen news to see China has issues. The economic front is turning into a major headache for them and they are doing their best to conceal the fact they have had many internal social unrest / riots in their central and western regions.

While china was taking its time chastizing the US on our spending to debt ration, they were in the process of hiding their own debt from the same crediting / UN agencies. China has a total of 1.2+ trillion in debt they failed to report. That comes from cities / their national government in their economic areas dealing with social spending etc.

They refuse to free float their currency as is required by all WTO nations.
The want foreign investment, which is required to be paired with a Chinese firm, only to make life difficult for the foreign firm to the point of pulling out, leaving the Chinese firm in control of the factories / production / items. The routinely violate patent / copyright issues then dump those products on the European / African market. They illegally subsidize their own industries to allow them to undercut foreign competition.

The US is not the only nation to have filed trade complaints with the WTO, nor is the US the only nation considering retalitory tarriffs to protect our businesses.

China is not as stable as people are led to beleive.

Originally posted by VoidHawk
I live quite close to an army camp(uk) that is often the last stop before troops are shipped of to a war zone, and for the last month they've been practicing day and night, in the past this has always been indicative that something is about to happen.

Looks like the western governments, America is planning to strike at Iran regardless the loss of civilian lives, not surprising they are risking a World War over Iran.

Originally posted by VoidHawk
I live quite close to an army camp(uk) that is often the last stop before troops are shipped of to a war zone, and for the last month they've been practicing day and night, in the past this has always been indicative that something is about to happen.

Really. What camp is this then? How often do we see these sort of claims on ATS? Training and exercises are routinely carried out in the UK. If elements of UK armed forces were to mobilise for war it would be on a massive scale and you couldn't keep it secret. Routine training and exercises are not indicative that something is about to happen. HM Armed Forces train and they train hard. UK forces are still heavily involved in Afghan ops and units train hard for such deployments. Your post is just pure speculative hype.

wonder if it has anything to do with the fact iran are claiming UAE islands.....www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by tommyjo

Originally posted by VoidHawk
I live quite close to an army camp(uk) that is often the last stop before troops are shipped of to a war zone, and for the last month they've been practicing day and night, in the past this has always been indicative that something is about to happen.

Really. What camp is this then? How often do we see these sort of claims on ATS? Training and exercises are routinely carried out in the UK. If elements of UK armed forces were to mobilise for war it would be on a massive scale and you couldn't keep it secret. Routine training and exercises are not indicative that something is about to happen. HM Armed Forces train and they train hard. UK forces are still heavily involved in Afghan ops and units train hard for such deployments. Your post is just pure speculative hype.

I agree they do train hard and regularly, however I grew up next to this camp, when I was a child gangs of us kids were allowed into the camp to run riot through the mock streets to help make it more realistic for the troops who were bound for Ireland(not even allowed on the camp now of course), I know the routine of this camp, I've lived near it for nearly 60 years and I know that of late the activity has greatly increased. Maybe like you say, it is nothing, but it is consistant with what I've seen in the past when something is about to go down.

reply to post by VoidHawk


It still doesn't mean something is 'going down'. Troops have to be prepared for all contingencies. It is like some of the people on ATS that see mil helicopters flying in the UK and think that it is directly related to events in the Middle East.

I expect that you mean Stanford Training Area?

www.defense-update.com...

www.mildenhall.af.mil...

Absolutely nothing unusual in areas like this being heavy utilised. Afghan ops and preparations for this theatre of operations are the main priority.

The following video shows the Typhoons in the United Arab Emirates.

Another three Typhoons have headed out today from RAF Leuchars. Radio enthusiasts noted 'Ascot 9634 Flight' leaving RAF Leuchars and later air-to-air refuelling as they headed south.

The yearly Advanced Tactical Leadership Course in the United Arab Emirates is due to take place 11 Nov - 6 Dec, 2012.