Tories plan £10bn ‘British Iron Dome’ to protect UK – how would it work?

The Conservatives want to build an “Iron Dome” missile interception system to protect the UK from future military attacks.

The so-called “Britannia Shield” was announced on the third day of the party’s annual conference in Birmingham after Kemi Badenoch accused Labour of failing to keep the country safe.

The Tory leader said: “The world will not wait for Britain to get ready. War has returned to Europe. Missiles and drones are transforming warfare in the Middle East.

“Cheap weapons can now threaten cities, military bases and critical infrastructure in ways that would have sounded like science fiction a generation ago.”

She added: “The threat is here. Britain must be ready. And Britannia Shield will help make sure we are.”

How would the ‘Britannia Shield’ work?

The shield would provide a network of radar, command and control systems to detect incoming strikes along with interceptor missiles and counter-drone capabilities, the party said.

Mrs Badenoch added the system would protect the whole of the UK, its sovereign territories and British bases overseas.

The system is understood to be modelled on Israel’s Iron Dome defence system, which has played a key role in shooting down incoming threats from Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah. Its maker, Rafael, claimed in May that the Iron Dome successfully intercepted 99 per cent of its targets since 2023.

But Mrs Badenoch has since rowed back, shying away from any comparison between the Tory missile plans and Israel’s Iron Dome.

She 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.”

She continued: “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.”

Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge said: “So, the phrase ‘iron dome’ has come to be used a bit like the word ‘Hoover’ to generically refer to missile defence systems – and this is clearly a missile defence system.”

When could it be ready?

The Conservatives suggested they would aim to have the “Britannia Shield” fully operational by the end of their first term in government if elected at the next general election.

Ms Badenoch has also vowed to bring defence spending up to 3 per cent of GDP by 2030 by reinstating the two-child benefit cap and reforming housing benefit.

How much will it cost?

The Conservatives have pledged to invest £10bn over the course of ten years into the new defence system.

Real-terms defence spending fluctuated under successive Conservative governments between 2010 and 2024, falling by around 22 per cent by 2016/17, after which it steadily rose and recently returned to 2010 levels.

Mrs Badenoch said: “Families can make their own choices. Businesses can build and innovate. But only government can defend the country.

“Yet Labour still will not commit the money Britain needs for defence. They keep pouring billions into a broken welfare system while leaving our security underfunded. When forced to choose, they pick social security over national security.

“Conservatives choose differently. We have fully funded defence spending at 3 per cent of GDP by 2030, because keeping Britain safe cannot be another promise for some distant point in the future.”

But Air Marshal Greg Bagwell, former deputy commander of RAF Air Command, told Times Radio he did not think the Tories pledge of £10bn over 10 years would be enough to protect the UK, its territories and bases.

He added: “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 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.”

Is the UK at risk of an attack?

Currently if there is a security risk, RAF fighter jets and Royal Navy destroyers armed with interceptor missiles are deployed. But these options can be expensive to operate and warships in some cases are tied up in other operations.

Threats across Europe are increasing as Russia routinely hits Ukraine with jet-powered drones and missiles that are hard to intercept.

In recent years the threat that Russia could attack a Nato country has increased, with Vladimir Putin warning that Russia will use all the weapons at their disposal in response to European aggression, including allies’ ongoing support for Ukraine.

Other threats to the UK come from Iran, for example, in March Iran hit an RAF base in Cyprus with a drone.

In June, the Ministry of Defence said its new defence investment plan (Dip) would make “air and missile defence a priority” by investing £790m over the next four years to enhance protection.

This money is being spent on radars, sensors and counter-drone interceptor systems. But critics say more investment is needed.

Lord George Robertson and General Sir Richard Barrons, who co-authored the strategic defence review, told The Times that £80bn over the next ten years would provide “entry level” air defence for Britain. He added that £120bn would be needed to create our own version of Israel’s Iron Dome.

That prompted former defence secretaries and Labour grandees to warn that the UK’s security is “in peril” as a result of the “corrosive complacency” of then-labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s reluctance to “to make the necessary investment” in Britain’s defence.