On Sunday night, an Iranian drone hit the runway at RAF Akrotiri, a crucial UK air base, although officials said it caused minimal damage.
A further two drones bound for the base were intercepted on Monday as Tehran launched a series of counter-attacks in response to the US airstrikes.
Ministry of Defence officials have been discussing sending a warship, most likely to be HMS Duncan, to defend the base.
A Whitehall source told The Times that HMS Duncan and its crew of around 200 sailors would “very likely” reach Cyprus from UK waters in around a week.
John Healey, the Defence Secretary, met senior military figures on Tuesday morning, when sending HMS Duncan was thought to have been discussed.
Opposition politicians criticised the Government’s response for being far too slow. James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary, said: “HMS Duncan must go, and go now – we need the highly capable air defence it provides to protect RAF Akrotiri. It begs the question – why wasn’t she already there?”
As well as redeploying his country’s flagship aircraft carrier, Macron is also expected to send Horizon-class and FREMM-class frigates, a nuclear-powered attack submarine, two fuel supply ships and up to 40 aircraft.
On top of this, the French president has also ordered anti-drone weapons and another frigate to the eastern Mediterranean.
Early on Tuesday, Macron contacted Nikos Christodoulides, the president of Cyprus, to inform him of the decision, a Cypriot government source told Reuters.
The French ships and planes would be able to defend RAF Akrotiri from Iranian attacks.
On Monday, Trump told The Telegraph that he was “very disappointed” in Starmer after he refused to let the US use the Chagos Islands base of Diego Garcia to launch strikes on Iran at the start of the war.
Gulf states are also understood to have expressed concern at Starmer’s reticence, even as around 300,000 Britons are in the countries under fire from Iran.
Greece dispatched four F-16 fighter jets to Cyprus on Monday. Two frigates, one equipped with its anti-drone Centauros jamming system, were also sailing to the island.
Centauros, which has been successfully deployed against Houthi rebels attacking shipping lanes off Yemen, could detect and incapacitate low-flying drones, such as the one that crashed into RAF Akrotiri, Cypriot defence sources said.
The Royal Navy has six Type 45 destroyers, three of which are in deep maintenance. HMS Dauntless and HMS Dragon are understood to be on three days’ notice to move.
HMS Duncan is the sixth and last of the Type 45 or Daring-class air-defence destroyers built for the Royal Navy.
Launched in 2010, the destroyer has served in the Mediterranean, Black Sea and Caribbean, and in 2019 was deployed to the Gulf in response to increased tensions with Iran. In May 2024, it was deployed to the Red Sea to protect international shipping from Houthi attacks.
The ship would be able to defend Akrotiri, though it has not been used to support any of the current airstrikes against Iran.
After the Iranian attack on RAF Akrotiri, which saw a Shahed drone hit the base at midnight local time (10pm GMT) on Sunday, Paphos airport was evacuated, and nearby airspace was closed.
Before the strike, British servicemen received an alert warning of a “security threat”, urging them to take cover as explosions rang out in the Limassol area, where the base is located.
There were no casualties, but the Ministry of Defence moved service members’ families away from the base.
Shahed drones are a type of kamikaze drone that function like a guided missile and are designed to hit specific targets. They have become known for their effectiveness in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
As well as housing RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus is a popular holiday destination with Britons, and is home to about 30,000 UK nationals.
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