The recent House of Lords debate on air defence capabilities provided insights into the United Kingdom’s plans for strengthening its front-line defences and managing technological dependencies.
Lord Craig of Radley asked about tangible additions to the UK’s air defence capabilities in the next 12 months, “My Lords, I too have warned before of the potential threat to the United Kingdom mainland from the air and of a second Battle of Britain. What new air defence capabilities will be added to the front line in the next 12 months?”
In response, Lord Coaker outlined ongoing upgrades: “We are upgrading the radar on the Typhoon fighters as part of the air defence, we are seeing the F35B capabilities, and we are looking at what further investment is needed in air defence.”
He further highlighted enhancements to ground-based defences, including “the T45 upgrade to Sea Viper, which deals with ballistic missiles, and the Sky Sabre capability; we currently have seven and are in the business of purchasing more of those.”
Lord Purvis of Tweed shifted the discussion to the UK’s dependency on satellite technology, pointing to the volatile influence of major private providers such as SpaceX and Palantir. “The Minister must know that any of our future defence capabilities will be dependent in some form on satellite technology, so can he reassure me that… we will not be dependent on a single satellite provider or on any individual provider?” he asked.
Acknowledging the critical role of satellites, Lord Coaker spoke on the importance of the UK’s relationship with the United States: “Of course, we need to ensure that we protect the systems available to us that protect our own country, but… one of the most important relationships we have—if not the most important—is with the United States of America.”
He described the UK-US partnership as pivotal, stating that it “defends not only our freedom but the freedom of Europe and the values that we all stand for across the world.”
So Lord Coaker is pleased with the upgrades announced by the previoius government.. It’ll be interesting to see what Labour are going to do.
On the subject of satellite capabilities, does anyone know what happened to the Anglo -Indian company that specialised in LEO satellites, that HMG brought out of receivership a few years ago? I have forgotten what is was called,
The company is OneWeb, and with the assistance of the National Physics Laboratory, has developed a PNT (positioning, navigation and timing) system for its LEO satellites – a world first. It was launched in September, as a service called Astra and its output signal is compatible with standard GPS.
In short, the government played a blinder with this investment.
Especially considering one web is the only low earth orbit internet competition to starlink that’s is actually flying. It’s not as robust for civilian use as starlink but it’s very capable especially in the Arctic for military use. I think the government got all its money back on the merger but retained a golden share too.
Probably the only good things Dominic Cummings ever did.
“A blinder?” OneWeb was “merged” and effectively taken over by Eutelsat Group, HQ in France. Eutelsat manufacturing is now in Florida, resulting in the Welsh factory being closed.
It is a massive shame as the LEO market is only ever going to get bigger. Instead of investing in British, development of what was a unique British leader in the market, the government allowed it to be effectively taken over by a French company that shuttered all UK operations claiming they couldn’t operate in the UK with it no longer being in the EU. However, it doesnt stop Eutelsat manufacturing in the US, does it?
So much for “Backing Britain”.
I thought the question was about progress over the next twelve months, actual capability increase in the next 12 mths won’t be much changed in that time period in regard to what was mentioned. F-35, no Meteor but a few more aircraft with what limited capabilities it has in the role. Typhoon, radar still years away. May be a few more LandCeptor/SkySabre, do we have any idea how many we have? Sea Viper when does that become operational?
I believe we have 8 “Systems”
2 per Battery, and there are 4 Batteries.
Each Battery is split into 2 Fire Groups, which in other countries are a Battery, so you could say we have 8 Batteries.
Each FG has a radar, support vehicles, and launchers…. that is the unknown, 2, 3 nobody seems to know.
This info comes from UKAFC.
That’s interesting, I did think we were getting eight but keep seeing reports we have 2 or 4. I think those numbers are coming from the other groupings you mention.
Yes, I think it might be wider confusion spread, and then further confused in the telling, by the uninformed as what constitutes a “system” ?
2 hardly makes sense for 4 Batteries split into 8 separate sub units.
I have also read that the Batteries of 16 RA have been expanded, as par the previous reports that “MRAD to double” along with “SHORAD to triple” ) different system entirely of course.
In reality you could say we are actually getting a capability cut as the tranche 1s are formally cut..dropped the front line ( single seat) fast jet fleet down to below 150.
I agree, we should really hold the tranche 1’s back and use them to build two reserve squadrons. The USAF does this, no reason we can’t. Pilots can transfer into the reserve squadrons part time once they retire and facilitate a move into civilian aviation. I bet you could easily get BA, Virgin and Easy Jet to cooperate on this given then shortage of pilots.
We have 7 sky sabre units. Is that all? That’s nuts. 7 units to provide air defence for the British army. Is that all? Should be at least 10-12 batteries not seven units. Which have around 56 ready to launch missiles.
Come on. Get serious.
HMG don’t get serious on Defence mate they just Get Stupid 🙄
Yes. 1937/8 all over again. In any case in my view we should not be publishing defence equipment figures. Not in Parliament. Not anywhere. We just hand out free info to the enemy as to just how weak we are, almost every week. Defence expenditure should be upped to 5% of GDP now. If necessary levy a defence tax on every single adult in the Country as a one-off experiment which goes directly to Defence. Are we going to arrive at a situation where we cannot feed ourselves, can’t provide power, and can’t even defend ourselves? Our politicians are absolutely HOPELESS. They can throw money at the train drivers, net zero, and all the rest of it recently. They don’t have a clue.
5% won’t happen, that’s utter fantasy.
2.5% hopefully in the next 2 years, and maybe up to between 2.75-3% by the early 2030s at best.
To be fair, the train drivers aren’t paid by the government; they’re paid by the private train companies that operate the various railway lines.
Better than it initially was. The original purchase was of 3 batteries (split into 2 fire units each with 1 Saab Giraffe radar and 3 launch vehicles, 8 missiles on each vehicle) and the previous Rapier (of which he were left with about 24 launchers by the time it left service) had a range not much more than StarStreak and was really designed to counter low altitude interdictors, such as the Su-24, striking runways – pretty much incapable of area defense and negligible in the anti missile role. The main thing with SkySaber is it’s designed to protect the army and only the army when deployed on the frontlines, it’s not envisioned to be deployed on UK soil, not practiced at being deployed over military bases or critical infrastructure and certainly not civilian centers, and even if it was decided to use it that way there simply wouldn’t be enough to do both that still still provide cover to the army wherever they would be fighting.
I do think CAMM-MR is a must when that matures, you could combine the batteries to include 1 CAMM fire unit and 1 CAMM-MR fire unit so wherever they are deployed you instantly get a layered defensive zone with both points and wide area defense capabilities, 10 or so batteries like that would be enough to cover any foreseeable threat. But that’s just my unprofessional imagination playing general with no budget, the comments on the SDR do seem to all emphasize air defense as a key feature so all I’ll say is be cautiously optimistic – we aren’t the only country in this position and many of those others have recently started making big purchases to fix it, I can’t see why we won’t follow suit.
What do you class as a “unit” ?
There is 1 MRAD Regiment in the British Army, with 4 Batteries. See my post above and Rowans too.
If we are so concerned we should probably do something about it
‘He described the UK-US partnership as pivotal, stating that it “defends not only our freedom but the freedom of Europe and the values that we all stand for across the world‘ Is that supposed to make us feel better? The values that we all stand for, has he not noticed that the values Trump and Musk are threatening at the moment are akin to those of Putin? Threats of Convenient Imperial possession taking from the weak even from weaker allies indeed, with threats of economic destruction if there isn’t compliance and deliberate attempts at de stabilisation of any State that doesn’t toe the line of our new alien overlords. Musk has even been calling on Trump to overturn Britain’s Democratic Govt. These words from Russia and China would be not only frightening but deemed on the edge of a declaration of war, but from the US apparently it’s just a bit of a joke or negotiating stance. Really? I suspect in essence we are to the US what Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus are to Russia expendable and cannon fodder for their egotistical ambitions. MAGA failed last time when yYou checked it beyond the self serving hype few of the promises became real, industrial jobs declined. So how does v2 gain traction? Imperial dreams and conquest and threats are usually the prime method just as Putin has done to try to convince his even more gullible people former glories are here. It’s the tactics of the banana republic and scarily Musk has been sending bananas to Space and calling it a ground baking payload so maybe it’s a sign of things to come. Meanwhile we just buy your heads kowtow and hope for the best.
Good grief.
That’s all you got? Putinistas really are pathetic 🤡💩
All the good trolls got sent to the front lines and are now pushing up sunflowers.
I have to say I’ve been a bit staggered by what has been coming out of trumps mouth recently..essentially he seems to have gone from an America first isolationist, to a rampant authoritarian expansionist if I was a nation with a border with the U.S or on the same continent I would actually start getting just a touch concerned.
I waiting for him to start on Bermuda, perhaps the Donald is scared of the UK and that’s why he hasn’t started on us 😀
Agreed with the sentiment of the Orginal poster given the Mad Men are running the asylum over in the US right now we should really be putting a bit of distance between ourselves and the US where we can.
We should have a proper UK SAM defence not just the Army Sky Sabre. I would suggest we buy an ASTER 30 system with block 1 missiles like the French and Italians. Then upgrade the missiles to block 1NT/block 2. These units should cover key areas of the UK. These systems should be backed up by Sky Sabre with medium range missiles. Our key RAF/Navy and C3 sites should also have anti-drone defences e.g. advanced AAA and jammers.
And Aster/CAMM inventories can be shared with the Navy.
And it still wouldn’t be enough, you’ve not got any exoatmospheric interceptors on your shopping list.
Lol not s chance unless the EU decides to invade again.
No body wants the UK we have nothing worth stealing anymore and are no longer a global entity to knock out.
Leave NATO go neutral and things get much better
Yeah… Look how well going neutral turned out for Ukraine.
Don’t be stupid.
Uk GBAD is a joke and has been an after thought since the 80s yes there has been alot of conversations and buzz around it since Russia kicked off but nothing of note. Seems like the gov is waiting out till last safe moment in hopes they don’t have to invest in it. Hopefully something comes from the review
I’d hazard a guess that the only thing that will come out of the review will be more cuts and a large heap of bullshit….
If the UK could harness all the hot air spouted by positions and commentators we could simply blow any threat away. Why do we have to talk talk talk everything to death and do nothing to solve the problem. I really do despair for the future of the UK sigh!.
Lord Radley’s answer no doubt assuaged their Lord and Ladyships, but;
1. Upgrading the radar on the Typhoon fighters – Years away, could have ordered another 16
2. Seeing the F35B capabilities – Too few, not on T4 yet, will take yesrs to get there.
3. Further investment is needed in air defence – We are issuing more house bricks to the RAF Regiment.
That about sums it up, doesn’t it?
You forget, scraping the tranche 1 typhoons condensing our typhoon fleet into 96 front line fighters…developing increased lethality and reducing the opportunity for losses through condensation of numbers into a fewer number of platforms in a new “kill more targets per plane, loss less planes, by having less to share targets with and less to be shot down” it may not win the war but it will be the most efficient way to loss it.
Going to ask a stupid question but why would anyone want to attack the UK? The banks in London?
The oil in the north sea has run out as the UK Gov said in the Scottish Independence date. And either way it’s owned by foreign companies AND it costs a bomb to get out of the sea.
We have a lazy population, no precious metals or strategic importance.
We’re on the doorstep of NATO allies (not even counting the US). We’re NUCLEAR armed.
Seriously this isn’t 1939 we’re not standing alone. There isn’t going to be a Blitz style campaign against us. We’re not Israel or the Ukraine. Don’t waste defence money on useless air defence missiles which could NEVER effectively defend the whole island. We have an effective CAP and Deterrent.
You lot love giving our secrets to the enemy , shut up guys !!!!!!!
Never in the field of human stupidity has so much been
F¥€£ed up for so many by so few.
Make peace you idiots. ❤️✌️
Shut up you utter tit.
Tell your Emperor Putin to make peace.
Somebody ask ‘Sir Humphrey ‘ he is beyond reproach in all matters regarding defence,just ask Jim Hacker and Bernard.
For some reason nobody seems to think UK is under threat of missile attack. Not even USAF if they did they would have at min a Patriot PAC3 battery at either Mildenhall or Lakenheath to protect their primary Europe Strike / Refuelling bases?