To complete my year on the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme, last week I visited British Forces in the Republic of Cyprus in order to understand the unique Defence challenges faced in our only British Overseas Territory under military jurisdiction.
We arrived during an extreme heatwave, which caused one of the most devastating wildfires in decades. We witnessed first-hand how British assets can be employed in an Aerial Fire Fighting (AFF) role, using the Chinook helicopter to drop water onto the fires.
With temperatures reaching 44C, the wildfire destroyed over 100 sq km and was dealt with as a national emergency, not only destroying over a dozen villages but causing multiple deaths. The fire also posed a threat to some of the UK’s strategic military assets on the island.
We had the privilege of seeing how British Forces, alongside the Sovereign Base Area police and fire services operated to ensure coordination of assets and contingency planning for the potential evacuation of the Western Sovereign Base Area, which would have seen thousands of troops and civilians moved.
In addition we visited the two operational deployments on the island, Operation TOSCA and Operation SHADER.
Operation TOSCA is the UK’s commitment to the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) and oversees the demilitarised Buffer Zone between the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which they patrol in the UN’s traditional blue berets.
We did have the opportunity to visit the Buffer Zone, much of which has been left untouched since the conflict in 1974, including Nicosia International Airport, brand new when the invasion took place, and now a time capsule for air travel over half a century ago; there is still a plane on the runway.
Operation SHADER is the UK’s contribution to military intervention against ISIL, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The RAF provides humanitarian airdrops, reconnaissance and air strikes. As such there are no photos of the Typhoons as these are armed operational jets flying combat missions and cannot be photographed.
