Interactive guides to the troop deployments

Some 43,000 British army personnel are heading to the Gulf to join around 120,000 US troops as part of the military build-up for a possible war against Iraq. The British force is just 2,000 personnel short of the number deployed in the 1991 Gulf war.

The deployment includes a force of 26,000 troops from the British army, around a quarter of its full strength. These are being drawn from 1 (UK) Armoured division, 16 Air Assault brigade, and the 7th Armoured brigade (the original desert rats and veterans of the Gulf conflict in 1991).

Two battalions from the Parachute regiment are also among the task force. However, of the soldiers deployed, only 6,000 are frontline fighting troops. The bulk of the British troops is from 102 Logistics brigade, which has the task of moving an army thousands of miles across sea and desert, as well as keeping it armed and supplied.

Also to be deployed are 120 Challenger 2 tanks, 150 Warrior armoured fighting vehicles and 50 artillery guns.

The government has also called-up of some 6,000 reservists, the largest such move for more than 60 years. Most will be members of the Territorial army, with around 500 from the Navy and Royal Marine reserves, 1,600 RAF reservists and almost the entire Royal Auxiliary Air Force. The reservists are most likely to take a support role in the event of conflict, and include specialists such as medics.

A Navy task force of 16 warships, led by HMS Ark Royal, has also been deployed, with 4,000 Royal Marine commandos, and some 6,000 sailors.

The flotilla is anchored off RAF Akrotiri, one of Britain's two sovereign military bases on Cyprus and the largest RAF facility outside Britain.

The last deployment to be announced was that of the RAF. A combat force of 127 aircraft - one third of the RAF - will be sent to the Gulf, made up of 100 fixed-wing jets, 27 helicopters and around 8,000 RAF personnel.

The spearhead of the force will be 75 Tornado F-3, Tornado GR-4 and Harrier GR-7 fighters and fighter-bombers carrying newly-enhanced 1,000lb laser-guided Paveway bombs.