Britain offered France the use of its own air base in Cyprus. After the Paris attacks of the last 13 November, Great Britain decided to make the base available Akrotiri (AKT) as "alternate aerodrome" for French aircraft carrier fighters Charles De Gaulle that since November 23 has been deployed in the Eastern Mediterranean and operates against the IS.
The base is located at the southern tip of the island of Cyprus and is only 80 miles from the Syrian coast. Here i Flurry and Super Etendard that these days carry out the first raids on the areas occupied by the caliphate they can land in any case of need: failure, emergency or lack of fuel.
After the recent meeting between British Prime Minister Cameron and French President Hollande, British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said: "Our offer is another demonstration of our solidarity with our French allies. It is right that we do everything possible to help them hit ISIS. In the meantime, we will continue to hit this cowardly terrorist organization in Iraq. We are planning to extend our operations to Syria as well. "
The basis of Akrotiri, where they are different deployed Tornado Gr4 of the No.2 Squadron RAF, it is in fact one of the strategic points from which Great Britain launches daily its attacks against ISIS in Iraq (since September 2014).
It is not the first time Akrotiri is shared by the British with the Armée de l'Air: during the Seuz Crisis, in the 1956, both air forces were stationed in Cyprus, where the Royal Air Force owns 2 bases (the other is Dhekelia, ESBA). From here the Hawker Hunter and de Havilland Venom took off together with F-84f French to neutralize the Egyptian aviation.
At the moment the unembarked jets of the Armée de l'Air that take part in the Operation Chammal: a dozen Dassault Rafale and Mirage 2000 D and N, operate from the air base of Muwaffaq Jumps in Jordan and from the Al Dhafra air base in the Arab Emirates. In the 2012, the basis of Akrotiri had been "targeted" by the Su-24 'Fencer' of the Syrian aviation who were often sent to "buzz" around. In fact, Assad intended to probe the local air defenses to test their reaction time. For this reason, in August of the 2013, the RAF deployed in defense of the 6 base for EFA multi-run hunting Typhoon. In the same year two refueling aircraft Tristar have been deployed to Akrotiri. The latter too are now available to the French allies.
