UK officials say future strikes on Iran missile sites remain possible

The United Kingdom has not dismissed the prospect of joining upcoming attacks on Iranian ballistic‑missile launch facilities, officials say.

American heavy bombers are slated to arrive at the UK stations on Diego Garcia in the Chagos archipelago and at Fairford in Gloucestershire within days, from which they will target Iran’s subterranean “missile cities”.

During a briefing, Western officials said they could not exclude the chance that Britain might join assaults on missile stores. “I wouldn’t dismiss any option because the situation is evolving day by day, week by week,” one remarked.

Eliminating Iran’s ballistic‑missile stockpiles and launch capacity remains a key objective of the combined US‑Israeli air campaign, yet many of these assets lie underground and are difficult to hit with standard ordnance.

One possibility involves dispatching US Air Force B‑2 or B‑52 bombers equipped with bunker‑busting weapons from the two British locations, a move that may demand extra assistance from the RAF beyond merely offering the airfields.

Initially the UK abstained from the US‑Israeli bombing offensive that started on Saturday following the death of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. However, on Sunday night Keir Starmer softened his stance.

The prime minister declared he would permit the United States to eliminate Iranian missiles “at the source” by launching missions from British bases aimed at “their storage depots or the launchers used to fire the missiles”. He described it as a “specific and limited defensive purpose”.