Britain on 'high alert and ready' to defend Falklands at 'moment's notice', RAF chief says

Susanna Siddell
Fri, 01 May 2026 08:46:21 +0000

Britain is on "high alert and ready" to defend the Falkland Islands at a "moment's notice", the chief of the RAF has said.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Harv Smyth said the RAF's defence of the archipelago was "non-negotiable" in its protection over the hard-fought British territory since the 1982 war.

Last week, a Pentagon memo setting out possible measures to punish Nato allies that refused to participate in US-Israeli military strikes against Iran was leaked.

The document suggested the White House could revise its diplomatic backing for British "imperial possessions", including the Falkland Islands.

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As it stands, RAF Mount Pleasant on the islands has four Typhoon fighter jets in residence, providing all-around-the-clock defence with Sky Sabre surface-to-air missiles.

They are prepared to raise a quick reaction alert if Argentina rears its head, Sir Harv said.

"Today, across the UK and globally in places as far away as the Middle East, the RAF is on high alert and ready to defend our country at a moment’s notice," Sir Harv told The Times.

"From 'quick reaction alert' in UK, scrambled recently against a suspected Russian 'Bear' bomber aircraft which was approaching our airspace from the north, to fighter aircraft based in the Falklands (defending the islands since the 1982 war), to our current Typhoon deployment in Romania as part of Nato’s vital enhanced air policing mission, the RAF's role in defending airspace is non-negotiable."

On the same base, somewhere between 1,300 and 1,700 British personnel are stationed on the Islands as part of the British Forces for the South Atlantic Islands.

In January, HMS Medway started a rotation as the Falkland Island's key guardship, taking over from HMS Forth.

The men and women there are from the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, joined with around 40 local volunteers making up the Falkland Islands Defence Force (FIDF).

Other territories in the region - the South Atlantic, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands - all fall under British protection.

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After US officials appeared to flirt with U-turning on their long-lived allegiance to British sovereignty over the archipelago, it was hoped the King's subsequent state visit to the US would smooth over any tensions.

While the visit was taking place, Secretary of State Marco Rubio played down calls for the US to support Argentina’s claim over the British territory, The Sun reported.

Mr Rubio told the newspaper that the reaction had been "overexcited".

He added: "It was just an email. People are getting overexcited by an email. It was just an email with some ideas."

After the memo came to light, Argentine President Javier Milei and his Government ramped up rhetoric over Buenos Aires’s claim to the Falkland Islands - and even instructed the British Falklanders to "go home".

Mr Milei, who described the islands as "illegally occupied" in the past, declared: "The Malvinas were, are, and will always be Argentine."

Argentina’s foreign minister Pablo Quirno also called for an end to what he described as British “colonialism”, demanding renewed bilateral negotiations.

No10 was quick to shut down the claims, declaring such sovereignty "rests with the UK".

A Downing Street spokesman said: "The Falkland Islands have previously voted overwhelmingly in favour of remaining a UK overseas territory, and we've always stood behind the islanders' right to self-determination."