UK to start Saudi air-to-air refuelling within days with one RAF Voyager

Prime Minister Burnham said a single RAF Voyager, based in Cyprus, will begin support for Saudi Arabia within days, after Houthi drone and missile attacks.

Prime Minister Burnham said air-to-air refuelling for Saudi Arabia is expected to begin within days. The support will come from a single RAF Voyager aircraft based at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. Burnham has agreed to the Saudi request for time-limited, defensive support, which the government describes as aimed at helping stabilise the region.

Burnham said the deployment follows Houthi drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia. He said it is intended to protect regional stability and British interests.

The decision follows earlier reporting that the UK was nearing a deal to give Saudi Arabia defensive military support, and separately that Britain was close to agreeing to help the Saudi military counter Houthi forces. At the same time, Donald Trump had signalled openness to a Houthi deal even as the UK moved toward backing Saudi Arabia, while Riyadh itself was pursuing mediation through Oman.

The conflict has continued despite that diplomacy. A Houthi leader has said the group is ready for a fair deal to end the fighting with Saudi Arabia, and a senior Iranian security official has said Tehran wants the Saudi-Yemen war to end. Even so, attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure have kept oil markets on edge as Trump weighed how far to back Riyadh. Houthi forces have previously claimed a strike on an Aramco facility in Yanbu and vowed further attacks, at a time when Saudi Arabia was pursuing a two-week truce with the group through Omani mediation. Saudi exports through the Bab el-Mandeb strait have run at under a third of this year's seven-day average since early August.

The deployment ties Britain to a military role in a conflict that is still active and escalating. With Houthi attacks continuing despite Saudi efforts and no political settlement in sight, the move deepens Britain's exposure to a conflict that has already disrupted global shipping and oil supplies.