Home Air Falklands would get new radars under Tory air defence plan

Soldiers in camouflage crouch behind rocks on a barren landscape as a fighter jet flies overhead in the sky. — Pictured: Typhoon FGR Mk 4 from No 1435 Flight flying during Exercise Cape Upholder. Between the 29th of June and 3rd of July, the 5th Battalion of the Rifles were joined by the Falklands Islands Defence Force and 1435 Typhoon flight of 905 Expeditionary Air Wing in the Falkland Islands as part of Exercise Cape Upholder This exercise closes out their rotation as the British Forces South Atlantic Islands Roulement Infantry Company. The Multi phase exercise comprised of live firing from Mortars, Snipers and Machine Guns, as well as a Section attack to take key enemy positions with Simulated Close Air Support from Typhoons. The four Typhoon FGR Mk 4 from No 1435 Flight maintain round-the-clock QRA readiness to police and protect airspace over the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and the South Sandwich Islands.

Falklands would get new radars under Tory air defence plan

October 7, 2026

Air defences on the Falkland Islands would be strengthened in parallel with any new system built for the United Kingdom, under a commitment made by the Shadow Defence Secretary in his conference speech, according to the Conservative Party.

James Cartlidge said the party’s Britannia Shield programme, a £10 billion integrated air and missile defence system announced on Tuesday, would cover the overseas territories as well as the home islands.

He said: “With our base on Cyprus attacked, and Argentina sabre rattling over the Falklands, I make this promise: when we procure these air defence systems for our nation, we will always, in parallel, reinforce our sovereign bases and overseas territories.

“Just as Britannia Shield means new and improved radars for the UK, we would also boost this capability on the Falkland Islands. Just as our plan would mean stronger stockpiles and air defence systems at home, we would strengthen our air defences on the Falklands.

“So let me be clear, we will take whatever steps are necessary to stop anyone from even thinking about an invasion. Because the Falklands are British and will always be British.”

The commitment is one of the more concrete things any party has said about the islands in some time. British air defence in the South Atlantic currently rests on the Sky Sabre system at Mount Pleasant, which replaced Rapier in 2021, together with the Typhoon detachment of 1435 Flight and the ground-based radars that go with them. Improving the radar picture and deepening the missile stockpile are the two things a serious reinforcement would involve.

Tom Tugendhat, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, made the same connection earlier in the afternoon, linking the government’s handling of the Chagos Islands to Argentine rhetoric. He said: “Weakness is provocative. It’s corrosive. Within days of capitulating on Chagos, Argentina’s president vowed to win back the Falkland Islands.”

The Chagos agreement has been a standing Conservative attack line since it was concluded, and Mr Tugendhat went considerably further on the legal question, describing the international court’s involvement as “courtroom colonialism, an expanding mandate over people who never consented to the jurisdiction of the body that is claiming it”, and arguing that it is “ridiculous to allow Chinese and Russian officials to determine our sovereignty”.