Tories Drawing Up Plans For Israeli-Style 'Iron Dome' In The UK
3 min read
The Conservatives are considering putting an Israeli-style ‘iron dome’ at the heart of their defence policy.
James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary and Mark Francois, the shadow defence minister, are drawing up proposals for a dome to protect the UK against cruise missile attacks from hostile actors like Vladimir Putin's Russia as part of a Tory party policy review.
It comes against a backdrop of global tensions, particularly Russia's continued attack on Ukraine and instability in the Middle East, and calls for the UK to increase its defence capabilities.
Last month, several former defence ministers told PoliticsHome that they believed the UK would not be able to defend itself from attack.
Keir Starmer recently set out government plans to raise defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2027 in response to global threats.
The Prime Minister is also leading ongoing efforts to form a 'coalition of the willing' — a group of countries that will provide military protection to any Ukrainian peace deal.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has called on the Labour government to go further by increasing defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP by 2029.
The Conservatives are in the early stages of creating policy through new commissions launched by Badenoch. Last week, the party held the first of its defence policy meetings to hear ideas from the parliamentary party, PoliticsHome understands.
Israel's Iron Dome is part of a multi-layer air-defence system, designed with the support of the US. Considered to be one of the most effective forms of national defence in the world, Israel says the Dome has a 90 per cent success rate, intercepting thousands of short-range rockets launched by terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah in recent years.
Francois told PoliticsHome: “One of the things that we'll be looking at is, does the United Kingdom need something like that [Iron Dome] against a Russian threat, and if it does, how would you do it and what does it cost?
“We don't have anything remotely like the Israeli layer defence system, sometimes called Iron Dome.”
Donald Trump’s return to the White House and his plan to reduce US military protection for the West has put a renewed focus on UK defence capabilities.
Trump has reportedly ordered the construction of a similar missile defence system — dubbed the ‘Golden Dome’ — capable of defending the US from long-range strikes.
Francois believes the UK faces similar threats, including from Russia, and is hoping to secure the support of other shadow ministers as the Tories formulate policy.
“We've been talking to industry about what the art of the possible is”, the Conservative MP for Rayleigh and Wickford told PoliticsHome.
The Conservatives hope to have their defence policy finalised by the time of their Autumn conference.
Former Conservative defence secretary Penny Mordaunt suggested last year, after Iranian missile attacks on Israel, that the UK should develop its own dome defence system.
There has been some restlessness among some Conservative MPs over what they describe as a lack of policies heading into the May local elections.
Rachel Maclean, the former Tory MP who serves as Badenoch's head of strategy, argued last year that the party should be in no rush to generate "massive lists of policies" now it is in opposition because they were "not going to be anywhere near government for four years".
