Our troops have been put in an impossible position: defend themselves and the equipment we need to fight – or defend the homeland and our people. This is the strategic failure on air and missile defence that now haunts not just the UK but most of Europe too.
During the Cold War the threat from air attack came from mostly one direction. But our neglect of homeland air defence since then has left us vulnerable to the new and multi-directional threats that have evolved.
In recent weeks, there have been unidentified drones buzzing over RAF bases – the perpetrator, state or non-state, seemingly undeterred from doing so. Russia fired a new hypersonic ballistic missile into Ukraine. And in a sign of how Russia is willing to hit civilian infrastructure as well as military, Ukraine’s energy system was targeted with 90 missiles and 100 drones in late November.
Israel, a country with no choice but to defend itself from the whole range of airborne threats, has a multi-layered integrated air and missile defence system to take down all these threats – including ballistic missiles, such as those launched by Iran in April and October.
But while we have some ground-based air defence systems, primarily focused on defending military locations, the UK’s only defence against ballistic missile threats are our six Type 45 destroyers with their Sea Viper systems. In the event of war these could have to defend our aircraft carriers and military bases – such as RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus – let alone the capital, military industrial sites, or our nuclear power stations.
This is why we need a British ‘Iron Dome’ – a properly integrated air and missile defence system that can defend against the whole range of aerial threats. This does not mean every town and village of the UK will have its own air defence battery – but it would mean we could defend both our troops abroad and key infrastructure at home.
This must be an urgent political, funding and industrial priority before it is too late – and our integration with new and bolstered air defence systems that our European allies have already had the foresight to invest in will be crucial.
We need a British ‘Iron Dome’
