MPs and military leaders are calling for a system to shoot down Russian missiles, but some worry it is an expensive folly
The Israeli Iron Dome missile defence system, left, has impressed many for its ability to intercept Hamas rockets, right, prompting experts to question whether the UK should invest in its own equivalent to deter and defend against Russia Rob is Special Projects Editor at i. He won the Legal Reporting Award in 2019 and was shortlisted for the Washington Post's Laurence Stern Fellowship and Amnesty's Gaby Rado Prize in 2015.But other experts fear it could become an expensive folly.
“This is an insurance policy that we cannot afford to not take out at the moment,” he argues. “Do I think it’s a waste of money? No.”Several prominent MPs are strongly in favour, with the Commons leader Penny Mordaunt taking inspiration from Israel. But one former senior member of the UK’s Missile Defence Centre, a government-led research partnership with major military suppliers, tellsthat anyone “calling for an Iron Dome-type system for the UK… barely makes the grade of ‘useful idiot’.”, has been highly effective at stopping short-range rockets fired by Hamas and Hezbollah.
The UK is not defenceless. The Royal Navy’s six Type 45 destroyers, for example, are armed with Sea Viper missiles, currently undergoing“, according to the Navy. Ahead of the 2012 Olympics, plans were drawn up to station the warships in the Thames toYet these do not comprise a comprehensive shield like Israel’s, especially because it depends on Type-45s and Sky Sabres not being stationed abroad when an attack begins.
Jonathan Boff, professor of military history at Birmingham University, is among those who believe we risk creating a 21st-century version of the Maginot Line – the advanced French fortifications designed to stop a German invasion, which the Nazis avoided in 1940 by advancing through Belgium instead. The ultimate extension of this is Mad – Mutual Assured Destruction – meaning that no country would dare start a nuclear war because it would be annihilated in return.But Boff underlines that the principle isn’t just about nuclear arms. “Russian aggression against Ukraine shows us that we need to strengthen our conventional deterrence. The nuclear shield obviously has its value, but there are going to be circumstances beneath that threshold.
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