War on IS ‘is new Battle of Britain’

Fallon sends a spyplane to Syria and declares...

BRITAIN is to step up its role in defeating Islamic State jihadists in Syria by sending a spy plane to identify enemy positions so other countries can bomb them.

The Defence Secretary will today announce the deployment of a £700million intelligence-gathering aircraft which will be flying missions over the extremist stronghold by the end of August.

Michael Fallon will deliver a speech declaring that the UK is fighting a ‘new Battle of Britain’ against a ‘fascist enemy’ that must be defeated.

The Rivet Joint spy plane will be used to intercept encrypted mobile phone and radio calls between militants, text messages, as well as other electronic communications such as WhatsApp.

This information will then be passed either to British fighter jets in Iraq or passed to US-led coalition planes which will launch airstrikes on militants operating in Syria, where British planes cannot fly.

In his speech to be delivered at the Royal United Services Institute thinktank today, Mr Fallon is expected to say: ‘ With more warnings of threats to our citizens in Tunisia following the horrific events of two weeks ago ... we’re fighting a new Battle of Britain. Once again, against a fascist enemy prepared to kill civilians and opponents alike.’

Earlier this month Mr Fallon set out the evidence for extending RAF air strikes from Iraq into Syria, telling MPs that IS organised and directed its terror operations in those two countries. He made clear, however, that the Government would come to the Commons for approval before conducting airstrikes in Syria, which would not be before the autumn. The deployment of British surveillance is a way of the UK helping in the fight against IS in Syria without actually conducting bombing operations there. The UK also supplies fuel to coalition aircraft bombing Syria.

Mr Fallon will also say: ‘We are the only nation with manned Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance permission in Syria.

‘And not only are we providing air command and control, but our Voyager tankers are refuelling coalition planes as well as our own. And today I can announce that our latest Airseeker Rivet Joint plane will be delivered seven months ahead of schedule and will be operational shortly in the skies above Iraq and Syria – providing essential support in the fight against ISIL.’

It means the surveillance mission against IS is now bigger than it was in Afghanistan, with more British spy planes tracking jihadists than there ever were tracking the Taliban fighters.

IS militants are increasingly using encrypted devices to communicate with one another on the ground in an attempt to go un- detected by British and other Allies’ warplanes. But the state-ofthe-art Rivet Joint can detect conversations tens of miles away and then plan airstrikes accordingly.

An RAF source said: ‘Once they’ve intercepted the phone calls they will then decide whether it is better to keep on monitoring the phone calls or take them out.

‘The RAF is as busy as they ever had been and we see no end to current operations.’

The RAF already has one Rivet Joint operating in the region, and a third will be deployed next year.