Iran conflict 2026: UK deploys Sky Sabre to Saudi Arabia

Prime Minister Keir Starmer talks to British personnel that include members of the 7th Air Defence Group at Saudi Arabia's King Fahd Air Base on 8 April 2026. (Getty Images)

The United Kingdom appears to have deployed a Sky Sabre air defence system to Saudi Arabia's King Fahd Air Base.

The UK Ministry of Defence announced on 31 March that Secretary of State for Defence John Healey had told Prince Khalid bin Salman al-Saud, his Saudi counterpart, that he had decided to deploy a Sky Sabre to Saudi Arabia.

The MoD added that “the equipment and teams will deploy this week [week of 30 March] including radars, control node, and missile launchers and a Royal Artillery battery and battle space managers to operate the system. The system will be integrated into wider Saudi and regional air defences.”

Photographs taken during a visit to Saudi Arabia by Prime Minister Keir Starmer showed him meeting personnel with badges from the Royal Artillery's 7th Air Defence Group at King Fahd Air Base on 8 April.

The group includes the 16th Regiment Royal Artillery that operates the Sky Sabre, which combines MBDA's Common Anti-Air Modular Missile (CAMM) with a Saab Giraffe radar and a command-and-control system made by Israel's Rafael.

The MoD added on 31 March that a Thales built Lightweight Multirole Launcher, which can fire both the Lightweight Multirole Missile (LMM) and Starstreak High Velocity Missile (HVM) laser beam-riding short range air defence munitions, had been sent to Bahrain and was being integrated into the country's air defence system.