In London, the Daily Mail screamed in a headline last night that British forces in Southwest Asia are being put on high alert for possible combat, and that Adm. Tony Radakin, the chief of the General Staff, wants to send the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier to the Red Sea. “The Mail has been told Admiral Sir Tony Radakin urged politicians to use one of the £3.5 billion platforms when the crisis began in October. But the Chief of the Defense Staff was overruled as ministers opted to send Cyprus-based RAF Typhoons on 3,000-mile trips,” it said. “Now British troops in the region are said to be on alert in the event of Iranian counter-strikes as Washington prepares to respond to the killing of three U.S. soldiers by Tehran-backed militants.”
A few hours earlier, the Mail had reported that the government had reversed its earlier decision not to send an aircraft carrier and that the Royal Navy is now engaged “in a frantic effort” to prepare one of its two carriers for deployment. It turns out that the Queen Elizabeth was already being prepared to participate in NATO’s Steadfast Defender exercise and could be diverted to the Red Sea instead.
