“Britain Defenceless: Ballistic Missiles Could Hit Tomorrow – And We’d Have No Answer”

“Wide Open to Attack! UK Has Zero Protection Against Ballistic Missiles”

As if by magic, this last weekend the UK media woke up to the fact that Britain has no effective defence against ballistic missiles. The military and defence commentariat has known this for some time, so why the sudden interest?

The probable cause is the widespread use of such weapons in Ukraine and in the Middle East. The Russians have made much use of their ballistic missile arsenal – together with drones and cruise missiles – in their ongoing assault against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

And in the Middle East the Iranians have lobbed their ballistic missiles against Israel, as have the Houthis and other ne’er-do-wells in the region. The Houthi terrorists have also launched a number of anti-shipping adapted ones against commercial traffic in the Red Sea.

What has been the result of such attacks? Well, the Ukrainians have been hard pressed to counter Russia’s missiles with a lack of effective anti-ballistic missile defence (ABMD) and many have hit their intended targets.

Israel, on the other hand, boasts a sophisticated multi-layered defence against such threats. Popularly known as ‘Iron Dome’, it actually consists of three different but coordinated systems; first there are the long-range Arrow-2 and Arrow-3 interceptors, developed by Israel with an Iranian missile attack in mind, and designed to engage threats in and outside the atmosphere respectively.

This is backed up by the mid-range ‘David’s Sling’ system, designed to shoot down ballistic missiles fired from 100 to 200 kilometres away. And finally there is the ‘Iron Dome’ proper, a short-range system built to intercept the kind of rockets fired by Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

In addition to these, the Israelis are developing a laser-based system to neutralize enemy rockets and drones at an estimated cost of just $2 per interception, and the Americans sent the advanced antimissile system THAAD, or Terminal High Altitude Area Defence system, to Israel late last year. THAAD is a critical part of the U.S. military’s air defences and is designed to intercept and destroy short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missile threats in their terminal phase of flight.

So Israel is pretty well provided for when it comes to ABMD. How does the UK currently stand in this area?

The answer is that Britain has nothing, zilch, nada, zero when it comes to ABMD.

Yes, I know that HMS Diamond managed to knock down a Houthi anti-ship ballistic missile in the Red Sea recently, but that was operating at the very limit of its capabilities. It’s no surprise that the Royal Navy is now scrambling to update the rest of its T45 destroyers with a proper capability.

Now, I hear you say that the threat of a ballistic missile attack against the UK at the moment is minimal, and I would agree. But all defence planning is hypothetical until you’re actually involved in a war, so let’s just conduct a short review of where British national interests might be vulnerable.

Top of the list must come Cyprus, where Britain maintains two sovereign base areas at Akrotiri and Dhekelia. The former is the location of the RAF base critical for operations across the Middle East, while the latter has the joint GCHQ/NSA signals intelligence listening station at Ayios Nikolaos.

Both are within range of Iran’s long-range ballistic missiles and also of those which might be launched by its proxies in Iran, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. They have no permanent ABMD provision.

Then there are various other strategic locations around the globe which are vital UK interests – Gibraltar, the Falklands, Diego Garcia, and Brunei to name but a few. All are vulnerable to submarine-launched or air-launched ballistic missile attack, and none have ABMD.

And what about the UK itself? Surely the capital, London, is appropriately defended, and also the independent nuclear deterrent submarine base at Faslane on the Clyde?

Sorry folks, the answer is no. At a pinch you could argue that London might be defended by stationing a T45 destroyer on the Thames, and that Faslane could be protected by another stationed in the Firth of Clyde, but as only two out of Britain’s six T45 destroyers are available for operations at present – and they have many other tasks too – then the rest of the UK’s national interests are undefended.

This state of affairs is not very satisfactory, hence the cries recently from the usual suspects that “something must be done”. But what, and who’s going to pay for it? The UK defence budget cannot cope with present demands as it is.

Over to you, Sir Keir Starmer and Defence Secretary John Healey. You’re the government and it’s your job to fix it. Until you do, Britain and its interests are wide open to ballistic missile attack.

Our enemies and potential enemies will not have failed to notice.