Stormers in Cyprus: How the Army defends Britain's most important overseas base
A row of Stormer AFVs neatly hug the wall inside the Joint Mechanical Engineering and Transport Squadron's workshop.
Four gunners are around one of the armoured vehicles, testing the tracks, headlights and weapons system.
It's around 0800 hours in early May and the sun is already warming the hangar which the men and women of 12th Regiment Royal Artillery have made their own.
Get your motor running
They've been in Cyprus since February and are long-settled into their job as the last line of air defence at RAF Akrotiri.
"For a first parade you'll be checking the engine to make sure there's enough coolant in it," says Lance Bombardier Ophelia Humphrey.
The 21-year-old from Milton Keynes is the commander of a single Stormer, Detachment Seven Two Bravo.
First parade is a daily service keeping the tried-and-tested machine running on the inside and out.
"We're making sure there is nothing loose," she adds.
Old but gold
The gunners from K Troop in T Battery left Baker Barracks in Thorney Island at the start of the year when war was brewing in the Middle East.
They work 12-hour shifts, 24 hours a day.
Clipping a helmet strap under his chin, Gunner Jordan Rogan powers the engine, filling the hangar with thick black smoke.
"This vehicle is a good bit of kit, it's old but gold," he says. The 25-year-old from Portsmouth bagged himself a job in the driver's seat.
"When you drive it gets you going, you know?" he said. "The driver's the best role."
Wearing a yellow high-vis jacket, Gunner Neo Brown starts marshalling the vehicle out of its tight parking space.
"It's nice to work with people you actually get on with," says Gnr Brown. "You're in a vehicle with them for 12 hours a day, so you have to get on."
The 22-year-old from Camborne in Cornwall says the ops deployment has been positive for morale. "Coming to places like this is good for team bonding," he said.
The goalkeeper against drones
Hundreds of Royal Navy, Army and RAF personnel were deployed to Cyprus both before and after an Iranian-made drone hit a hangar at RAF Akrotiri.
"Getting attacked on that first day was a weird feeling – exhilarating and quite scary at the same time," says Second Lieutenant Josh Pink.
The 26-year-old from Tunbridge Wells in Kent is the Officer Commanding K Troop.
"Leading up to getting deployed we were on a missile-firing camp, so we had to juggle moving Stormer out here while getting everyone trained up."
Time to refuel
By lunchtime, the crew have been working non-stop for four hours and have quite the appetite.
Deployed personnel eat their scoff in the Ops Feeder which was set up to manage the bulging workforce at the British airbase.
After a quick lunch of stir fry, chips and salad, it's back to work.
They're not heading to the hangar, but on the way to part of the base we can't identify for security reasons.
Driving along the main roads of Aki, Stormer towers over the small cars it passes.
The crew is practising a loading drill in front of the Ground Based Air Defence Commander, Major Simon Woosey.
"The threat we're aligned to face against is one-way attack uncrewed aerial systems or cruise missiles," said Maj Woosey.
"The Stormer here is part of the High Velocity Missile system and can be optimised against that threat."
Fast jets and helicopters are all patrolling Cyprus on the lookout for drones, but Stormer is the last defensive layer if one gets through.
"Sometimes we're colloquially referred to as the goalkeeper," he adds.
Quick Reaction Force
The Quick Reaction Force must be able to load and fire a Lightweight Multirole Missile at short notice when a drone is detected.
"We've just loaded the missile launcher with LMMs which are primarily used for one-way attack drones," says Gunner James Biehl.
"If we get a threat inbound, the QRF team will crash out, deploy the kit, load the missiles and await further instructions."
The 24-year-old from Hertfordshire only joined the Army a year ago. "I'm pretty new to the Army," he says.
"Within a year I've been sent to Cyprus with a real threat which is quite fun. It’s better than sitting at camp doing not a lot."
As the sun lowers in the sky, the crew pack away the missiles.
T Battery is coming to the end of its deployment, rotating with 137 (Java) Battery.
The drone that hit RAF Akrotiri was small, but had a big impact on how Britain defends its most important overseas airbase.
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