Just to clarify the Argosy bit. I was a co-pilot on 267 Squadron at Benson when we got called out to go to Lyneham, get on a Comet 2 and go to Akrotiri. After a few hours sleep, we left Akrotiri in the middle of the night of20.11.65 in XP443 (the captain was Dave Rowe) and flew to Bahrain via Tehran on the CENTO route. We took off at 105,000 lbs Military Operating Standards and our first cruising height was 7,000 feet (which is a lovely height to be at when headed through the Turkish and Iranian hills at night).
On arrival in Bahrain, the aircraft were then flown south to Ndola (via Khormaksar) by 105 Squadron crews which had been prepositioned in Bahrain.
I got back to UK, did my command course at Thorney Island and got posted to 105 Squadron as a captain when 29 Squadron were headed home. It is entirely possible that the Javelins were having to use the CENTO route from Sharjah to Akrotiri. That's the way the Hunters went home from Aden so why should they be any different?