BRITAIN must ramp up missile defences – like Israel’s Iron Dome – or risk its nuclear bases being obliterated in the first hours of a war with Russia.
Moscow would target RAF jets and Royal Navy nuclear submarines if it launched a surprise attack, a report by the Rusi think tank has warned.
A pre-emptive strike could “cripple” Britain’s nuclear deterrent and conventional military power – as most of the UK’s best weapons are “concentrated on just a few sites”.
The report warned a single Russian Yasen-class submarine could launch 40 cruise missiles from the Norwegian Sea with “relatively low warning”.
Yet the UK lacks both the radars to detect them “skimming over the sea” – or the weapons to shoot them down.
The report’s author Sidharth Kaushal said the immediate threat comes from sub-sonic Russian cruise missiles which can be launched from planes and submarines.
By 2035 the main risk will come from intermediate range ballistic missiles, like the Oreshnik blasted at Ukraine last year.
By 2040 the UK will need to defend against “hypersonic glide vehicles” which can travel at 20 times the speed of sound.
He also warned short range drones could be smuggled close to targets and launched from sea containers – like Ukraine’s Operation Spiders Web – or launched by Spetznaz special forces.
Kaushal said calls for a British Iron Dome were warranted by Russia’s focus on “long-range conventional precision strike” weapons.
He said: “The initial priority is the expansion of its capacity for the defence of critical military installations against what is primarily a cruise missile threat.”
The report urged Keir Starmer to buy space based sensors and long range radars that can see 3000km away, the equivalent of Lands End to Moscow.
He said “long-range precision strikes” was central to Kremlin military doctrine.
He said: “The destruction of aircraft on the ground is particularly salient. The destruction of nuclear attack submarines that carry submarine-launched cruise missiles is also described as a priority.”
Russian targets would likely the Royal Navy Bases at Devonport and Clyde and RAF Marham in Norfolk, where the nuclear capable fleet of F-35 stealth jets is based.
It comes after RAF war games showed Britain would be overwhelmed if it faced a Russian missile attack like the first night of the war in Ukraine.
Air Commodore Blythe Crawford said: “It was not a pretty picture.”
The drills suggested bases would be blown to smithereens and £100 million fighter jets could get blitzed before they could hide.
Air Cdre Crawford, who was head the RAF’s Air and Space Warfare Centre at the time, said it showed the UK “home base” was no longer safe.
The drills used a £36 million wargaming system to test the UK’s responses to “hundreds of different types of munitions” attacking from multiple different directions.
It exposed multiple vulnerabilities including a chronic shortage of airfields and a lack of hardened shelters for protect and hide jets on the ground.
The government sold off scores of airfields and watered-down the RAF’s powers to commandeer civilian runways.
The Armed Forces rely on RAF Typhoons, which scramble from RAF Lossiemouth, to shoot down incoming drones and cruise missiles.
The only British missiles that could intercept Russian ballistic missiles are based onboard the Royal Navy’s Type 45 destroyers.
Air Cdr Crawford warned Britain had got lax by standing at the edge of Europe and “feeling as though the rest of the continent stood between us and the enemy”.
He said: “Ukraine has made us all sit up.” The government announced last week it was buying six more launchers to for its Sky Sabre air defence systems.
The weapons, used by the Royal Artillery, can shoot down targets the size of a tennis ball at two times the speed of sound.
How Israel's defence mechanisms work
Iron Dome
The Iron Dome is Israel’s most famed missile shield.
It intercepts short-range rockets as well as shells and mortar.
Iron Dome batteries are scattered across Israel, with each base having three or four launchers.
Each launcher has 20 interceptor missiles.
A radar system detects rockets and calculates the trajectory, while a control system estimates the impact point.
An operator then decides whether to launch rockets to intercept.
David’s Sling
David’s Sling destroys longer-range rockets, cruise missiles and medium or long-range ballistic missiles.
It started operation in 2017 and like the Dome, only stops missiles that threaten civilians and infrastructure.
Arrow 2 and Arrow 3
Arrow 2 wipes out short-range and medium-range ballistic missiles while they are flying through the upper atmosphere.
It is able to detect missiles up to 500km away.
Missiles from Arrow 2 can travel at nine times the speed of sounds – firing at up to 14 targets at once.
Arrow 3 meanwhile intercepts long-range ballistic missiles as they travel at the top of their arc outside the Earth’s atmosphere.
Thaad system
Thaad is a US-made system, designed to work in a similar way to David’s Sling and intercept missiles towards the end of their flight.
It can stop missiles inside and outside the Earth’s atmosphere.
Thaad batteries usually have six launchers, which each contain eight missiles.
