The UK Guardian is reporting signs of advanced readiness at likely hub of air campaign as UN inspection team comes under fire near site of alleged chemical attack.
Warplanes and military transporters have begun arriving at Britain's Akrotiri airbase on Cyprus, less than 100 miles from the Syrian coast, in a sign of increasing preparations for a military strike against the Assad regime in Syria.
Two commercial pilots who regularly fly from Larnaca on Monday told the Guardian that they had seen C-130 transport planes from their cockpit windows as well as small formations of fighter jets on their radar screens, which they believe had flown from Europe.
Residents near the British airfield, a sovereign base since 1960, also say activity there has been much higher than normal over the past 48 hours.
If an order to attack targets in Syria is given, Cyprus is likely to be a hub of the air campaign. The arrival of warplanes suggests that advanced readiness – at the very least – has been ordered by Whitehall as David Cameron, Barack Obama and European leaders step up their rhetoric against Bashar al-Assad, whose armed forces they accuse of carrying out the chemical weapons attack last Wednesday that killed many hundreds in eastern Damascus.
Read the complete story at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/26/syria-warplanes-cyprus-tensions-damascus.
Blog Editor Note: With the UK military involved and the RAF Cyprus Base in the mix, here are the latest primary UK Military Flight Watch Support HF frequencies.
United Kingdom (TASCOMM)
Voice Call Sign: ARCHITECT
Frequency (USB): 4742.0 5702.0 9031.0 11247.0 13257.0 18018.0 kHz
Ascension
Voice Call Sign: HAVEN
Frequency (USB): 4742.0 9031.) 11247.0 kHz
NOTE: Flight Watch available for notified flights.
Cyprus
Voice Call Sign: CYPRUS
Frequency (USB/kHz):
Channel 1 - 4742 (a)
Channel 2 - 9031
Channel 3 - 11247
NOTE: (a) H+15 weather broadcasts, when active.
Mount Pleasant (MPA)
Voice Call Sign: VIPER
Frequency (USB): 4742 (a) 11247 (a)
NOTE: (a) H+35 weather broadcasts when active.
1. Flight Watch available for notified flights.
2. Aircraft not fitted with ALE are to scroll through the frequencies in order to select the best reception. Transmissions are to be made at 15 sec intervals before changing to the next guard frequency.
RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus (LCRA)
ATIS 125.000 MHz
Approach Control 123.600 235.050 362.300 (discrete) MHz
Director 123.600 123.300 (discrete) 264.850 MHz
Tower 130.075 339.850 257.800 (discrete) MHz
Ground 122.100 396.850 MHz
Operations 234.050 MHz
Watch this blog for any additional frequencies involved with the Syrian military crisis.