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A former Royal Navy captain has told LBC that a delay in a British warship reaching Cyprus could lead to a ''major loss of life" among UK armed forces on the Mediterranean island.
HMS Dragon is moored in Portsmouth while it is supplied for duty, a process which is likely to take days.
It is due to travel to Cyprus in the coming days amid widespread conflict in the Middle East.
But the British warship with orders to defend a base in Cyprus from attacks by Iran is unlikely to set sail until early next week.
Speaking to LBC, John Foreman, a naval expert who used to serve in the Gulf region, said the warship should have been deployed weeks ago but that the Ministry of Defence decided to try and "sit the war out".
He said: "The fact that we're now scrambling to send a destroyer to the eastern Mediterranean indicates we should have sent one two or three weeks ago in the anticipation of the war starting in Iran.
"It strikes me that the Ministry of Defence has been on the back foot.
"When I worked in the Gulf in 2011 and 2012, we knew that if there was a conflict there, then Iran would lash out and retaliate, so it doesn't take the brains of an archbishop to work out that this is like a likely scenario.
"So, if you know that America is building up to something big in the Gulf, in Iran, the Ministry of Defence could have worked out what measures we needed to take.
"So, we sent some jets to Qatar, we sent some jets to Cyprus. We may have beefed up defences in Akrotiri, but obviously it wasn't enough.
"It strikes me that this is a political decision taken to try and sit the war out, but that failed on day one because Iran attacked UK personnel in both Bahrain and in Cyprus.
"And now they're having to be forced to react. They're seeing the Greeks and the French go to defend Cyprus, and the government's being forced into action. There's a sort of learned helplessness in the MoD to do nothing.
"So far, the Government's been lucky, but should we have a major loss of life because of inadequate air defences or lack of preparation or political interference, there'll have to be a serious investigation."
HMS Dragon is expected to set sail early next week at the earliest.
It will take the Type 45 Destroyer around seven days to reach its destination, meaning service personnel at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus will be defended by French and Greek ships for another week.
LBC has contacted the Ministry of Defence for comment.
Former member of the special forces Jason Birch posted online: “What an embarrassment. I’m here in Cyprus as a proud British veteran whilst our base here is attacked by Iran’s proxies with no defence measures in place aside from sending surveillance aircraft into the air which are not going to prevent or deter incoming.
"What we do have, is a limp, wet lettuce of a leader, who is scratching his head whilst Greek and French warships are roaring headlong to the island."
A blast hit the runway at RAF Akrotiri on Sunday night, coming within 800 yards of thousands of Brit military personnel and their families stationed on the island.
Air raid sirens were activated and RAF Typhoons and F-35B Lightning jets were scrambled alongside air-to-air refuelling tankers.
The attack was carried out using an Iranian Shahed drone, likely launched from Lebanon.
