I am off to Pernera Beach on Sunday for two weeks. Let me know if there are any beers calls on the Typhoon Sqn......I need to experience a bit of that good old fashioned drinking culture :E

PN

ARE we building up Aki? If we seek to be a little more discriminatory about how and where we get stuck in, if we're aiming a little closer to home..

BBC News - 'East of Suez': Are UK forces returning?

.. then it might be a good idea to bolster it. It would be somewhere to strategically stockpile too, lots of gear we're recovering from Afghan, instead of selling through Witham Sales, conveniently, just up the road.

Do you still have to `arrive` at AKR before lunch,siesta,so `handbrake/scribblies` can go home/leave....? should be `fun` going around the Armoury,Ops,Mess toting big bags full of NBC kit/Naps tablets/3-4 to a room....

When I was first posted in, we landed mid afternoon and the place was deserted (1984). My informal arrival however, resulted in me being incapable of speech after just a couple of quick hours. Being beasted up and down Cardiac Hill at 0615 the next day taught me a valuable lesson about Keo.

I'm off on holiday to Paphos on Sunday, so if you're going to war, please keep the noise down . . .

@sycamore - no.

Col Bob Stewart has just described Akrotiri as the 'perfect' site from which to launch an attack on Syria. That will go down well!

Guess nobody has to worry about this anymore as Cameron's request was denied.

Rick,

I dont think so - there is more at Akrotiri than a few Brits and a helicopter.

Cameron may not be committing troops/aircraft/ships etc but that doesn't mean he wont offer support in other ways too.

Using Akrotiri for any ops against Syria is mad. Such a thing would allow Assad to justify an attack upon Cyprus. All of it puts the civilian population of Cyprus as risk. Totally mad and totally wrong.

Totally agree RR, but just one scud hitting Akro would be enough for CMD to send in the 4 spare terratorials we have in reserve:D

If you thought your enemy might use an airbase nearby would you wait until he was ready?

Good job we're nobodies enemy.

still... I'm sure nobody would object if we 'lent' Akrotiri to our American cousins. They could install their own defences then!

He could easily use America's ongoing utilization of the SBAs as a pretext for attacking Cyprus, whether the UK were involved in military action against Syria or not. And since when did he need any justification to attack civilians?

Which would give Cameron the justification to get involved ('Unprovoked Attack on soverign British territory') and justify invoking NATO mutual assistance?

I think its stupid to give Assad any excuse to hit Cyprus.
Does the government of Cyprus not have some considerable say in what we/the US can and cannot do from the bases there?

Musing about Akrotiri
 

While the bogeyman in Damascus might well fancy a pop at Akro, I fail to see how that could possibly assist his continued survival. Would that not invoke a NATO response of quite some significance, which would rather defeat the object - if there is one ?

I find myself wondering if there's an element of 'Good cop - bad cop' in play, for if M. Assad finds he wants an 'out', I'm confident he'd rather have Britain as an intermediary than someone from China or Russia.....and so might his wife.

This is getting close to the last opportunity for Bashir al-Assad to cut a deal, and I do hope he's rather more rational than Gaddafi.

Nope. Under the Treaty of Establishment, it is British Sovereign Territory. Besides, given the number of Russians and Russian interests on the island of Cyprus, even the deranged Assad is not going to risk lobbing a scud in that direction.

There's something you don't want to see on your posting notice.

I don't mind a good insurance company scrap on behalf of clients, but thats not one I'd like to argue the toss over with underwriters.

Cyprus mail reports that Russia may ask CYP Gov. for military use of Paphos airfield and Limassol Port:=

kaitakbowler

Why the :=

I said before that Putin has Obama in a Squirrel grip and
all he has to do is squeeze which he is now doing.

As far as I am concerned, Putin should make Obama look
like the biggest dick in US Presidential History and made
to pay for having such a big mouth.

The use of Cypriot facilities has been in discussion for a while now. The Cypriots also have similar agreements with France for the use of Paphos airport. The news of Russian military using Cypriot facilities normally gets bent out of shape.

Some quotes from the Cypriot Defence Minister back in June.

Cyprus considering Russian use of Limassol port, Paphos airbase - UPI.com

The Russian Navy already uses Cypriot ports for refuelling. The agreement to use Paphos will be similiar to the current agreement with France to allow military tranport flights. France already uses Paphos as a logistics hub and for emergency evacuation of citizens in the region. Somehow I can't see Cyprus allowing Russia to use Paphos for anything other than military transport flights similar to the French agreement.

Some stiff competition in that field, I think.

Russia was remarkably calm when Cyprus trampled all over 19 billion euros worth of dodgy roubles - now we might know why. Off shore oil reserves next.

Some stiff competition in that field, I think.

Ask Monica perhaps?

I'm sure Cyprus don't care who uses it, as long as they are paying.

Theres a lot of money to be made from the war business. When they say Afghanistan costs $ billons per day, It always made me wonder who was the receiving end of the cashflow.

;)

Not quite the metaphor I was thinking of.

Chilling details of the huge arsenal of chemical weapons arsenal stockpiled by Syria were revealed tonight by French spies | Mail Online

300 mile range. Puts Akkers well in range.

?We will not be used as a launching pad for Syria attack? | Cyprus Mail

Curious. Now when you chaps get on your high horse about the US! Remember that (allegedly) the UK was selling Assad chemicals that had potential use in CW.

I refer to my post #2 from a few days ago, and respectfully suggest it may not have been such a silly question. I suspect this Assad bloke is not like Saddam or Gaddafi and may well react to being attacked by hitting anything and everything he is capable of. Meanwhile I reckon there are targets to his south that might also prove "irresistible".

Smudge

Smudge

Meanwhile I reckon there are targets to his south
that might also prove "irresistible".


South or South east ?

What were you thinking ?

500N,

Not to beat about the bush Israel would seem logical (south I believe). It would really kick off some aggro. Lets face it, I doubt he believes he could beat the US in a straight fight, but why would he fight straight. And if he has the attitude, "I won t go as easily as Saddam or Gaddafi, I'll take as many as I can with me", who knows. I still believe though that Akrotiri would at least present a static target if he's attacked. Are you thinking Jordan (South east) ?

Smudge

Smudge

"Are you thinking Jordan (South east) ?"

No, I was thinking of US assets in the Gulf States.

I didn't think of Israel as I just very much doubt that he would attack Israel
just because the US fired a few missiles at him.
1. If that was the case, why didn't he attack Israel when they dropped bombs
on the Nuclear Reactor ?

2. Israel has whipped his arse before and in all likelihood would do it again.
Israel would have nothing to lose if Syria attacked it and they have everything they need to turn Syria and it's military into a raging fireball with acceptable losses.

Do you really think he'd attack Israel knowing what he is likely to
cop back ?

He's already fighting a civil war, I doubt he wants a full blown war
with a neighbour as well.

Have any of you looked at a map?
Jordan is south, and Isreal is south west.

uffington,

Good point well made, I'm no navigator so accept your directions.

500N,

My point with regard to Israel relates to seeing the burning oil wells in Kuwait, every day for several weeks, as we ran our routes in to Kuwait. Saddam certainly had a "scorched earth" policy that I believe Assad may well share. Those types do tend to follow a particular mindset. I'm not too sure about Israel bombing Syrian Nuclear reactors, they certainly bombed the Iraqi facility at 'Osirak' ? I think in 1981. ISTR an Israeli raid on a facility in 2007 in Syria, that was rumoured to be a nuclear site, but the Israelis claimed it was a chemical site, back to square one maybe ? Anyway, I'm not claiming any vast strategic or tactical military knowledge. I know what I fear may happen, and wonder how its contained to a couple of air strikes.

Smudge

Smudge

Forget whether it was Chemical or Nuclear, the fact is Israel flew into
a well defended country, bombed an air defence facility and the plant
and flew out again without one aircraft being lost. In addition, they
inserted Commandos on the ground before the raid and extracted them
afterwards.

IMHO, no mean feat.

500N,

Agreed.

Smudge