UK deploys Rapid Sentry anti-drone air defence system to Kuwait

Britain has deployed its Rapid Sentry air defence system to Kuwait to help protect British and Kuwaiti interests, the UK has announced.

A drone strike hit a power and desalination plant in Kuwait on Friday morning, following an attack overnight on the Mina al-Ahmadi oil refinery in the country, which Kuwaiti state media reported caused fires in a "number of operational units".

Kuwait is around 80 kilometres from Iran.

Britain's Ministry of Defence said the Royal Air Force (RAF) has deployed the Rapid Sentry, a state-of-the-art short-range air defence system aimed at defeating drone threats, to the Gulf emirate.

The Rapid Sentry fires missiles with a range of eight kilometres, aimed at hitting small and fast targets. 

Air Commodore Paul Hamilton, commandant general of the RAF, said last month that the "Rapid Sentry gives us a credible kinetic safeguard when a drone cannot be defeated electronically".

Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke over the phone to Kuwait's crown prince, Sheikh Sabah Khalid al-Sabah, on Friday morning and discussed the deployment.

Starmer condemned "the reckless overnight drone attack on a Kuwaiti oil refinery", a Downing Street spokesperson said.

"He reiterated that the UK stands with Kuwait and all our allies in the Gulf."

UK rejects Hormuz ship fees to Iran

Britain and Kuwait have a longstanding defence partnership, as part of which the RAF has been delivering training to the Kuwait National Guard.

The RAF has been working to intercept Iranian drones and missiles targeting Gulf Arab states since the US-Israeli war on Iran began.

On Thursday, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper chaired a meeting of more than 40 countries to formulate a plan to exert pressure on Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, a critical maritime corridor through which around 20 percent of the world's oil passed until Tehran effectively closed it in early March.

After the meeting, Cooper said Britain would "comprehensively reject" any attempt by Iran to charge ships fees to sail through the waterway.

The foreign secretary added that Iran must "not be allowed" to "hold the global economy hostage" and said the nations discussed potential sanctions "to bear down on Iran". 

The US is using British military bases for bombers targeting Iranian sites in an effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.