The UK government has confirmed it is considering air and missile defence capabilities for the homeland, including potential protection of major population centres and critical infrastructure.
Responding to a written question from Green Party peer Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle, Defence Minister Lord Coaker did not provide detail on specific plans or costs, but indicated that options are under active review.
“His Majesty’s Government continually monitors and assesses the threats to the United Kingdom,” he said.
Coaker added that “a range of air and missile defence capabilities are under consideration within the Defence Investment Plan,” suggesting that decisions on any future system will form part of the forthcoming spending and capability roadmap.
The response does not confirm whether the UK will pursue a dedicated land-based ballistic missile defence system, nor does it address potential costs or how interceptor stockpiles would be sustained.
The UK currently relies primarily on a mix of maritime-based air defence, allied capabilities and early warning systems, rather than a comprehensive ground-based missile shield comparable to those deployed by some NATO partners.












Is this a belated April Fools article?
It is quite genuine. The reply was dated April 1st 🙂
Ah yes the never ready Defence Investment Plan.
I was at the MoD in Whitehall in late 1997, when a senior guy was pushing for THAAD for the UK. The New Labour government was too CND heavy to consider that. Since then, there have been umpteen expensive GBAD/SAM studies, but nothing ordered. The UK needs to get off zero high end GBAD. Perhaps in stages, HM Treasury can cope with. A multi layer CAMM-MR, CAMM-ER, CAMM, system might provide the UK jobs Starmer would need to get the cost past his back benchers.
With the advent of Rapid Sentry, Sky Sabre and Aster 30 it looks as though Ukraine, the Gulf and c-uas are forging a ‘bottom up’ layered GBAD architecture. Just the outer BMD outer layers to sort out then?
Are you sure it’s wasn’t GBI instead of THAAD. 97 seems very early for THAAD.
THAAD was a post GW1 project, so timing might be ok. More surprised the US were willing to share!
Tiny bits of THAAD are made in the UK.
I certainly remember we were originally due to host a Ground Based Interceptor battery under the Blair/Bush years but the project was shelved and we ended up with just the radar at fylingdales. The US East Coast GBI facility was also shelved and in the end AEGIS ashore got put into Poland and Romania instead.
Ok and where’s the money for it? Oh yeah it doesn’t exist
All given away by DWP. Ask and you will receive!!!
I take heart that a decision on land based missile interceptor capability is in the defence investment plan. I can only imagine that will be SAMP/T given how long the wait for Patriot and THAAD is. I could see potential for Leonardo to manufacture Kronos in the UK as part of any deal. It would also facilitate the ability to integrate CAMM in the same system.
Neither the article or the Minister said that.
You live in a fantasy world… Try to stick with reality
This government has everything in a plan !!! Unfortunately that’s where everything stays !!!
This is the same Lord Coaker who knocked back the sensible addition of 30mm on the carriers. Let’s hope he’s a bit more sensible minded on GBAD. For example if France, Italy and Denmark have adopted Aster SAMP/T and others are looking at it why not for the UK? To be used in conjunction with other systems CAMM, LMM, counter drone, shared missile pools. What about NASAM’s? Where’s CAMM-MR at if at all? Over to you.
Lord Croaker is a Minister of State for Defence in the Lords, in other words he is very little if anything to do with decision making but he is available to answer questions in the Lords about minor matters. What’s more as he is unelected it’s not that important what he says or that he gets it right.
You may all have noticed that there are zero big announcements coming out of the HMG at the moment and unless something really serious happens it will stay that way till after the May elections.
So unless anything changes we may just find a mention of defence in the Kings Speech 13th May 🤷🏻
You don’t understand how the government operates then – being in the Lords doesn’t make a lesser Minister. The previous Government had a member of the House of Lord as the Foreign Secretary!
The responsibilities are clearly on the website: https://www.gov.uk/government/ministers/minister-of-state–190
Is it Lord Coaker or Lord Croaker? Lol. Just hope he has some good sense between his ears.
“considering”. That’s alright then. 🚀 No need to think about it until the 2030’s…
That means it in the in basket, I’ll get down the pile, find it, have a quick look, tick the box marked reviewed and stick it back in the in tray at the bottom.
👍😏
Off topic, but Flight Global reported a day or two ago that the UK has apparently received the final aircraft of the first batch of 48 F-35Bs.
Mike, do you know if we have put in a firm Tranche 2 order?
Not yet, it’s in the DIP 😀
It might be in the DIP then again, maybe not.
Not according to the Flight Global article; it says ‘firm details around future purchase plans remain to be outlined’. Though it seems likely the 12
F-35As will be ordered before any further Bs, it also mentioned that the UK may order the Stormbreaker SDB II as a stopgap measure due to the delay with SPEAR 3.
I thought that was all done last year. Fast at being slow arent they?!
I do not know why I bothered reading this.
I tend to skip the dross.
The first cruise missile/drone hit these islands on 12th June 1944 and the first ballistic missile hit the UK on 8th September 1944. I am glad we are now ‘considering’ ground based defences against their modern equivalents.
Well Graham you are accuse the MOD and the governments acting in haste now can you !
Considering the accuracy and power of modern weaponry its about time they took it a bit more seriously for the UK and even adequate deployable shorad for all sea/air/army/ logistics bases/radar facilities/power sources. Why can’t they even use reserve personnel for these roles?
GM,
IAW your post regarding the German V1 and V2 campaigns of WWII, request any available explanation of HMG resistance to acquisition of meaningful GBAD capability. Would presume any country which endured UK’s losses would have a vested interest in the capability, especially given developing geopolitical developments.
Possible explanations: Defence funding shortfall due to public social-welfare expenditures; public perception that UK is invulnerable to attack by multiple CRINK members due to NATO membership; recent history no longer taught w/in UK public education system; other causes? Even the US is finally contemplating comprehensive GBAD. Curious in the colonies … 🤔
A lot of the lack of requirement is in part due to the myopic thinking within past Governments and to some extent military brass. That if Russia did launch cruise missiles at the UK, they would have to overfly a number of other NATO countries. So the belief was that these NATO countries would use their air defences to take out the cruise missiles. I believe it was one of the reasons the Bloodhound SAM system was never replaced, as they believed the threat to be very low.
However, this type of thinking might have been ok for the 1980’s to 2010’s. It was believed that with with detection and coordination by AWACS, directing fighter aircraft. cruise missiles could be effectively dealt with. But if Russia did plan on attacking the UK, it wouldn’t just be from Russian sovereign territory. They would also plan to use submarine launched and aircraft launched platforms, to attack from the North and West. Where combined and coordinated with other attack vectors, would be used as a means to overwhelm combat air patrols and quick reaction fighters. But as we now know, they would also use intermediate range ballistic missiles, as these have a much higher chance of success of reaching a target. Granted that “most” Russian subs in the North Atlantic will be tracked by NATO, but it won’t stop them from launching a surprise attack. It would be the same for the bombers, they will likely be shadowed. But if more than 3 are in the air along with separate groups, making sure you have available assets to shadow them will be difficult. Not forgetting, the UK binned its E3Ds and we are still waiting on the “3” E7A replacements.
But there is also the unconventional aspect Russia is famous for, which is its political misdirection and influence. Where it would likely generate a number of false flag events to sow doubt and division within NATO. After all, any invoking of Article 5 will need member states to vote on it, which then delays any immediate action. I guess you could also add in to that mix, the use of a clandestine drone attack on key military bases and infrastructure launched from within the UK. This type of attack was graphically highlighted by Ukraine’s drone attack on Russian air bases. Russia’s military and GRU, will have learnt a lot from the attacks effectiveness.
Since the end of the Cold War, the number of military bases in the UK has shrunk and been consolidated, making an attack on the remaining bases much more significant. The UK does seem to be at last taking threats more seriously, with at least a bottom up approach. As seen in Cyprus and the Gulf States, The Martlet based Rapid Raven system has shown to be highly effective against drones. It should also be useful against cruise missiles, as Ukraine has used Martlet to take out Russian cruise missiles. Sky Sabre is already in service, it can provide more than just a local area protection against cruise missiles and air platforms. Though its capability against ballistic threats is questionable, though no doubt being looked at. Especially if the system includes the longer ranged ER and MR variants. Dragonfire has demonstrated it can take out drone threats, plus there is a muted land based laser system in the wings. Which along with Rapid Raven, could go a long way of mitigating the drone threat to UK bases and infrastructure. Just not sure when the land based system will be up and running.
There are at least two key areas missing so far, which is the ability to intercept endo and exo-atmospheric ballistic missiles. The Aster 30 Block 0, demonstrated that it can intercept short range ballistic missiles (SRBMs). But it was never its primary requirement. The newer Block 1 has better software to increase the intercept chances. Whilst the latest Block 1 NT has been specifically designed to include ballistic threats as a key requirement, as it uses a higher frequency active seeker to help pin point the target’s location and movement. But Aster 30 Blk 1 NT is only equivalent to the Patriot PAC 3 MSE, it is not THAAD/SM-6 let alone SM-3/Arrow-3.
Something new showed its head during the recent escapade with Iran. Iran have been using ballistic missiles armed with cluster munitions at Israel. This is not a cluster munition in the traditional sense. But, where a unitary warhead, has been replaced with 8 to 20 separate free falling warheads. Iran clearly saw how effective Israel’s defences were, against their ballistic missiles, but noticed how towards the later stages more missiles were not being intercepted. As Israel must have been running low on interceptors by that point. Therefore, they are releasing the cluster munitions much higher up, increasing the number of threats that need to intercepted, i.e. trying to overwhelm the defences, but also make Israel burn through their stocks of interceptors. Yes, you can use exo-atmospheric interceptors such as SM-3 and Arrow-3 to intercept the missiles, whilst it still holds the cluster munitions. But the cost exchange become wildly out of balance. I don’t believe Iran cared how dispersed the cluster was after release, as they are using them as a terror weapon. But you could take it to the next step, where the individual munitions released used a guidance system.
I know MBDA are developing the Aquila missile, which is being looked at as a replacement for Aster, but with the THAAD’s high altitude capabilities. The big question is can they make it more cost effective? But will there also be a cheaper means of countering ballistically launched cluster munition?
Davey,
Appreciate your response to my query. Noticed that significant development is future tense and dependent upon sufficiently increased funding. Meanwhile, the Dark Lord and his Orcs are assailing the ramparts of Gondor, and the vast majority of the inhabitants of the Shire remain blissfully unaware of the gathering storm in the East. Hope reality will be able to match the arc of the trilogy.
If this government actually cared about air defence of Britain we never would have retired our T1 Typhoon.
This government? Get your head out of the right wing media propaganda and read actual facts. The decision was made in 2021!
Implemented but this govt but the decision was not overturned
it is finally sinking in.. If we get into a fight with Russia they will do four things
1) Gray warfare ( infrastructure sabotage, cyber etc)
2) political, cause division and political split ( they don’t care what we argue about they will be supporting every cause that causes a split) .
3) economic and sea denial.. lose control of the seas that attach your nation to the world you strangle the enemy in a slow death
4) strategic attack against infrastructure, civilian ( to create political tension) industrial ( to destroy the long term ability to wage war) and military ( to shape the preset tactical battle spaces)
To protect against number 4 you must have a good set of air defence..
To my mind because you have to protect civil and industrial infrastructure this element should be a civil defence function.. if the military take over it will distract from Air defence of task groups ( ground air and sea) as well as strategic air defence of the nation… so there should be essentially a civil air defence organisation ( supported in training by the raf ) that undertakes short range air defence of hospitals, power, logistics and industrial infrastructure.
That’s the only way you will get mass.. volunteers trained on cheap mass produced air defence ( this would likely be air defence drones) in a world where Russia could throw hundreds of long range cheap drones a day at any target.. traditional RAF jet based air defence is none viable.. 4 typhoon armed with 6 anti air missiles costing a million pounds each ( that you can make a couple of hundred of a year) will decimate 20 irreplaceable strategic bombers worth billions.. again 200 drones a day costing 20k that can be build in the 10,000s year year is a inevitable and unstoppable disastrous strategic defeat…
Unless the RAF, Navy and army take a big step back and realise everything has changed and that yes their high end capabilities are still very important and valuable ( Russia will still attack the UK with SSNs, surface combatants and strategic bombers throwing cruise missiles… it will still use armies in Eastern Europe)…. But if we have a spat it will plaster our infrastructure ( all of it) with hundreds of drones a day, it will use sabotage against any site ( likely with smuggled small drones).. it will use political warfare on the web and on the streets as well as getting leaders it wants in power, it will use cyber attacks on all elements of society..
The modern peer war is so far beyond the capabilities and paradigm of western military organisations.. its utter outside of their lane..
The Chinese paradigm of the war you truly win is the war “in which the enemy army never enters the field” is now more real in the 21c than ever ( internet, cyber, social media and drones etc) and the reality of peer war is so multi dimensional that modern western military paradigms are almost a recipe for defeat.. look at the US in its wars.. the greatest military power on the planet manages to loss every kinetic war it fights.. the Soviet union a vast military power was destroyed without a shot being fired by nato.. NATO has essentially be destroyed by political warfare creating internal conflict ( anyone who does not think the crisis of cohesion being suffered by the west was not fuelled by the 3 million strong Chinese political warfare machine, the Russian and Iranian troll farms.. is someone I have a bridge to sell to.)
The Uk needs structural changes that allow it to fight every day in all domains including anti drone warfare..but it needs to be a civil defence approach not a traditional military one… a whole society approach not a few lads sent to war.
Special Agent Orange has already been remotely activated to initiate para 2 and 3. Hopefully his battery will go flat before he wrecks to much.
Its all a bit pointless Jonathan.
We live on such a small island and its absolutely dependant on its motorway network.
All an adversary has to do as a precursor to military action is seriously damage the various motorway bridges of the M1, M4, M5 and M25 and you would bring the country and economy to a halt.
Failing that, in a shooting war, ballistic missile strikes at these key targets and we are effectively right up shite creek without a paddle.
Ballistic missile defence in depth will simply not happen, because they imply won’t fund it.
“His Majesty’s Government continually monitors and assesses the threats to the United Kingdom,”
Then does absolutely fu*k all about it……
Wouldnt worry about that, we can rebuild a motorway section really quickly……………….
The few mile section on the A1 up past Newcastle only took 12 years to complete.
The most important before you fight for anything is to know what you fight for. Else, your will to fight will dissipera very very quickly. Minds are the fuel for everything.
You will do all systems you want, but if your country is not accepting the harsh reality that suffering is the game of the day, things will fall appart faster than the bridge targeted.
All you have been talking about is part of military circle’s debate. Of course it will not be discussed publicly.
Like that! 👍 Morality and reason will give strength for the fight.
I’d certainly be interested in knowing how many of the millions of recent migrants here consider this country something worth fighting for.
At 42 years of age, I see fewer and fewer things to fight for here.
J,
Wonder whether you ever consider yourself to be a modern incarnation of Cassandra, princess of Troy, given the gift of prophecy by the God Apollo, yet cursed by the same to never be believed re predictions. Hang in there, perhaps someone both intelligent and in important office will actually read your posts. Someday, somehow, someone, somewhere … One must live in hope … 🤔👍
The Government are considering it, ok. Join the long list of other defence things being considered. Standard every other day MOD realease about thinking about doing some thing, while doing nothing.
Is considering more positive than thinking about? The inertia gripping so much of this country is utterly unbelievable. The cabinet should have a weekend away to AbuDhabi then see if they are still “considering” it next week.
Awesome, another review, we field a formidable force of reviews 👍
Some form of permanent home defence is much needed! Probably mid range to cover whole of UK as well as some short range covering sttategic points and London. The UK defence situation is really bad and needs a lot of resources allocated – now!
Possibly not London, it doesn’t identify as National Capital these days, but as a separate state, I won’t mention its pro nouns because I would probably get arrested!
Extensive and layered Ballistic missile defence for Worcestershire is whats needed, ive just had new windows fitted and what them protected…..
Our yes, the dear Mayor of London….who wanted to be independent when Brexit happened, aided and abetted by some of said population of London.
As a Londoner myself, sad to see what has happened to my city since the 70s where I grew up.
Totally changed.
Low level bullshit.
Seeing is believing
The Kola peninsula to Shetland is about 1200 miles, probably about 1500 miles from London to Russian territory. So defend against Russia means a system to cope with MRBM and IRBM. It will take a capable systems to cope with anything lobbed from Iran especially if there are no options to forward deploy to intercept in the boost phase such as Poland, Romania or at sea.
Unless it was a collaboration I can’t see any nation hosting a big fat target on its territory, we wouldn’t.
SM3, Arrow 3, neither of which provide sovereign control and workshare for radar and command and control.
It would cost a lot of money and like nuclear , might result in deep cuts to everything else, unless more money was found, and this Govt won’t.
It also now means drones.. lots and lots of drones.
Geran-5 1000km range air launched drone that can be dropped by Su-25s
Shahed 149 Combat radius of 2500km and drops about 13 bombs before heading home
Geran2/Shahed 136 range up to 2500km , 50kg warhead. They have started putting thermobaric warheads on for added nasty
In one month Russia fired over 6000 of these at Ukraine… that is what we would get in the face..
WW1-WW2 performance air vehicles, if you cant defend against those, you are incompetent. Or worse.
It’s not that you cannot defend against them.. it’s the numbers and the spread of targets.. how do you shoot down 6000 in a month with high end air defences designed to destroy numbers in the 10s ? How do you win when your using an air defence missile costing a million pounds on a target that cost a fiftieth of that…
Kaliningrad is about 850 miles (1370km-ish). The fairly standard Kh-101 Kalibr cruise missile has a range of around 1500km to 2000km depending on which publication you read. If so, much of the UK would be in range from the Kaiibr launched from Kalinigrad. The best means of detecting these will be from airborne platdforms, such as the E7 Wedgetail.
Considering….. wow
Our nations leadership summed up in a single word.
Always considering, rarely leading or actioning.
It took me a long time to remember who Starmer & his cabinet reminded me of. Monty Python “Life of Brian” The Judean Peoples Front” or is it The Peoples Front of Judea? Anyway, endlessly talking, passing resolutions, but never doing anything. The rare times that they do, it is a total failure.
They are doing what all governments do. Lay mines for the next lot by delaying and delaying and delaying till it is not their problem to fund.
And government has the long term interests in Great Britain as priority?
Not for me. Scum….
JH,
“People’s Front of Judea (PFJ)”. Thank you for providing much needed comic relief! 👍😁(Monty Python was truly the most entertaining comedy troupe of the 20th century.)
Life imitating art, both sides of the pond.
Get a move on and finalise the decision sooner rather than later. Include more defences on the carriers while you are at it. And then install it all asp, use the magic money tree if you have to like you did for the banks, and all the pandemic scams, but this time give it to competent companies!
Fast jet aircraft can not shoot down ballistic missiles and even some types of drones, any government worth its salt wouldn’t be considering it they would be seeking to acquire an anti missile system similar to the Israeli Iron Dome. Our country waits until the situation becomes critical before they wake up. We need a strong PM who is willing to overrule the bean counters in the Treasury and get things moving.
That’s not technically true. It is possible for a jet using a BVRAAM to shoot down either a ballistic missile or an independently retargetable warhead, even though these might be falling at speeds between Mach 6 and 10. But it has to be in the right place at the right time. The interception window is incredibly small.
Fast jet aircraft can not shoot down ballistic missiles and even some types of drones, any government worth its salt wouldn’t be considering it they would be seeking to acquire an anti missile system similar to the Israeli Iron Dome. Our country waits until the situation becomes critical before they wake up.
SAMP-T or a domestic equivalent are probably most likely given it uses the Aster 30 as well, the biggest non-British procurement issue would likely be the astronomically slow launcher production combined with the risk of potential obsolescence by the time it’s ready.
There was a crucial mention in the SDR around vulnerability of PJHQ to kinetic munitions and a need to address
Was there?
Missed that.
Not just PJHQ. Atlantic Building, Ramillies Building, Montgomery House, the NADOC/NASOC, Leach Building, CRC at Boulmer, the GOSCC, GCHQs 3 main Ops buildings, Thames House, VX, Hanslope Park, Loughside, Pathfinder, the list goes on an on, defended by absolutely sod all.
Some of those will be hardened to an unknown degree, and no doubt with a bunker in the basement The only facilities apart from those that are so classified they’re not open knowledge ( like alternate locations already in place ) that are hard to get are the DCMC buried deep. NASOC/NADOC is semi sunken only, easy to spot and aim, not sure how deep the hole at PJHQ is either, I suspect it is also semi sunken as it is also clear enough where to aim.
To be fair, PJHQ being removed might actually increase operational effectiveness and remove a remarkable amount of pointless staff work.
Is that so?!
Welcome to the forum, BTW, noted your posts already. 👍
Hi DM – Source: SDR 2025 – Page 125 point 5.
“Given that PJHQ plays a vital role in UK military operations, it must be
resilient to physical attack (including air and missile strikes) and cyber-attack.
The changing intent and capabilities of the UK’s adversaries mean that its
current location poses unnecessary risks to the assured command of future UK
military operations, including in defence of the UK itself.”
“Considering”….how dynamic can you get?
I make no bones I hate this government, I would be surprised if DIP ever sees the light of day. For at least 30 years government paid no attention to defence. Its OK the US will defend us and now they won’t and why should they ? Our defence starts at a very low point. Cameron really screwed us. If you defence commentators were listened to we would have little change from 200 billion for all the extra kit and recruits. If I am wrong and DIP gets published you will be lucky to get £2 billion extra. Labour has really already cut that amount. £500 million on Albion etc. MOD paying 15 % nation insurance. But I suspect plenty of jam tomorrow. Isn’t there always ! And I wish one of the new parties was different on defence but I detect little sign. The only way things will change is if a bad actor launches an attack on the UK. Then the proverbial hits the fan especially if there is loss of life.
Ah good to know that we’re considering……
I mean we’ve had a strategic defence review and supposedly a defence investment plan all of which have not materialised and resulted in any decisions or actual expenditure on defence.
In the meantime we should consider what a competent government would do to determine the safety of the country.
If the US pulls out of NATO and Russia attacks the UK (or Europe) I’m really not sure how we’d do.
Just to put some numbers out there to really get a feel for “it” if “it” happens.. if NATO collapses and a semi isolated UK finds itself in a spat with Russia..this is not Russia crossing European borders it’s a “fixed” up fight with the UK to humiliate and hurt us.. remember of all nations in the world Russia hates the UK the most… so imagine the US has walked away.. NATO crumbles.. the EU focus on an EU defence pact.. Britain as an independent sovereign nation tries to steer a course between the EU and US as they become more adversarial.. Russia pushes the UK as its hated enemy a sub war kinetic conflict starts at sea.. RN and Northern Fleet units engage and ships are lost, but neither nation can invade or knock the other out..Russian begins a strategic bombardment to reduce the UK and the UK strikes back
1) both use SSNs to fire cruise missiles at each other but with limited platforms on both sides you are talking a hundred or so sub launched missiles each.. but the UK cannot replace these as the US says no.. Russia keeps going small and steady unto the RNs superior ASW finally finds and kills its SSNs
2) both use air launched cruise missiles again expensive limited numbers spread over a year maybe 1000 strikes each other.. but this is slow and small.. using a gradually reducing set of strike aircraft as both sides strike them when they can and neither can replace them..
3) the UK plays its trump card a 5th generation carrier battle group allows the UK to maintain sea control of the high north as well as its core geostrategic strategic position as a choke point starts a slow strangulation of northern Russian trade.. Ukraine keeps the south closed
4) Russia plays its trump card as the UK suffers days of a 1000 drone attacks..
The only question is how long would the UK last again a constant drone bombardment ?
So the numbers:
Russia has a drone that can
travel 2500kms
Has a 50kg frag or thermobaric warhead
Costs about £20,000 to make
The max number they fired in 1 day was about 1000
The max number they fired in 1 month was 6000
Like the land based version of Sea Dart considered to replace Bloodhound, this will go nowhere.
Considering 🤔 the way the world is ? Honestly 🙄
Oh they are considering it! Most of Europe considers it essential. But the UK has to have a Russian missile flying past parliament before they see the threat…
We should buy land based Aster 30 1NT and Aster block 2. We should also get more Sky Sabre batteries with the MR missile.
Its not rocket science!