Kemi Badenoch has insisted that a Conservative plan for a weapons system to defend Britain against long-range missiles and drones is not a gimmick. The Tory leader also shied away from comparisons between her party's “Britannia Shield” proposals and Israel's defence system, after a Conservative press release dubbed it “in essence, a British Iron Dome”.
Britannia Shield plans
The Israeli system can shoot down short-range rockets fired from up to 70km away, while Britain and other European countries face the combined threat of long-range missiles from Russia, and surprise drone attacks. The so-called Britannia Shield would provide a network of radar, command and control systems to detect incoming threats along with interceptor missiles and counter-drone capabilities, the Conservatives said.
Military experts have already expressed doubt that the commitment of £10 billion over 10 years would be enough to build such a system. Asked by Times Radio whether the plans were a gimmick, Mrs Badenoch replied: “No, not at all. Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge has been speaking to senior military figures. He’s a former defence procurement minister. He knows what he’s talking about, they know what they are talking about.”
Iron Dome comparison denied
Mrs Badenoch denied Britannia Shield would be the same as Israel's Iron Dome after a Tory press release made the comparison. The term was picked up by several newspapers which described her plans as a British Iron Dome on their front pages on Tuesday.
Mrs Badenoch told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: “We are not building the Iron Dome. We are doing what other European countries are doing: Greece, Benelux countries, Belgium, and the Netherlands, and Germany. We are designing something specific for the kind of threat that we face here.”
Asked why newspapers had described it as an Iron Dome, Mrs Badenoch said: “You’ll have to speak to the newspapers about that. I called it the Britannia Shield. But we are explaining to people that missile defence systems are things that we need right now. The Iron Dome is one type, and we want people to understand what we’re talking about, we haven’t said that we are replicating that. And the money that we are spending, a billion pounds a year over 10 years, should be able to deliver this.”
Funding and expert doubts
Mrs Badenoch said the system would protect the whole of the UK, its sovereign territories and British bases overseas. Air Marshal Greg Bagwell, former deputy commander of RAF Air Command, told Times Radio he did not think the Tories' pledge of £10 billion over 10 years would be enough to protect the UK, its territories and bases.
He added: “Therefore it really is a question of definition of what capability you’re going to deliver here, and what you can realistically expect in terms of protection. You might be able to protect certain key sites, certain strategic areas. London would be an example, but of course that’s not enough. If you’ve got military bases all around the country, you’ve got power stations, you’ve got critical infrastructure dotted around the country, then you’re really going to have to try and cover the entire area, which is challenging. And the figures you’ve already just quoted are sort of north of £80 billion. The US is talking anywhere between 200 billion and 1 trillion dollars (£150 billion to £750 billion) for their Golden Dome.”
The Conservatives have sought to sharpen political battle lines with the Labour Government over its defence policy after Prime Minister Andy Burnham said national security could not come “at the expense of social security”. Mrs Badenoch has pledged to spend 3% of gross domestic product on defence by 2030 – a target for which Mr Burnham is yet to set his own deadline – which the Tories say would provide an additional £10 billion a year. The Conservatives say measures such as reinstating the two-child benefit cap and reforming housing benefit would help fund the plans.
