Nato will demand Sir Keir Starmer rapidly increases Britain’s spending on air defence to protect against potential ballistic missile strikes, it has been reported.
The request, which is expected to be made by the end of the year, is understood to stem from frustration that the UK is not contributing enough to Europe’s defence systems against such attacks.
The revelation comes as military chiefs chillingly warned last night that Britain could soon be vulnerable to ballistic missile strikes from anywhere in the world.
An investigation by The Times newspaper, revealed there are increasing concerns about the holes in Britain’s missile defences.
More than a dozen serving military personnel and defence experts have exposed that Britain and its military assets overseas are potentially at risk from long-range missiles being developed by China, Russia and Iran.
One senior military source warned that if a weapon was fired from from a ship, submarine or aircraft, the UK could be attacked from any direction.
‘In 15 years’ time, a ballistic missile will be able to hit Britain from anywhere in the world,’ they said. ‘But it’s a very expensive problem to fix.’
Another said that the UK is now in ‘peril’ due to the country’s ‘very thin air defences’.
A grab taken from footage released by the Russian Defence Ministry on March 1, 2024 purporting to show the test firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile
Prime Minister Keir Starmer holds a press conference, following his first cabinet meeting at Downing Street on July 6
HMS Diamond, a Type 45 destroyer, currently on operations in the Mediterranean sea, tests its defence systems
They explained the lack of investment in this area was because ‘nobody thought we needed it’ but developments in Ukraine and Israel now ‘suggest otherwise’.
Moreover, fanatical militant groups such as the Houthis, an Iranian-backed militia in Yemen, have now also got their hands on long-range weapons.
While the missiles possessed by this group are not capable of striking the UK, Britain’s military bases in Cyprus — Akrotiri and Dhekelia — are within reach.
Other countries such as the US and Israel have spent billions of pounds developing their own defensive shield in response to the increased threat from ballistic missiles.
Germany also signed a £3.2 billion deal with Israel last year to purchase a defence system called Arrow 3, which is designed to intercept ballistic missiles outside the Earth’s atmosphere.
While the UK has signed up to a European programme to develop new long-range weapons, its defence systems remain inferior to its allies.
Britain’s main form of air defence are the Royal Navy’s six Type 45 destroyers, touted as the world’s best air defence warship, and the British Army’s advanced Sky Sabre missile system.
Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip in January
Pictured: A battery of Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system deployed near Jerusalem on April 15, 2024
Houthis-made mock missiles and drones are displayed at a square in Sana’a, Yemen, on December 21
Type 45s have an anti-air missile defence system that can destroy incoming threats 70 miles away.
The vessels were previously described by Sir Nick Carter, the former chief of the defence staff as arguably ‘the only capability the UK has to deal with strikes similar to those unleashed on Ukraine by Russia.
The Type 45s recently helped repel drone and missile attacks launched by Houthi militants on merchant vessels in the Gulf and Red Sea.
However, insiders within the Ministry of Defence fear that Royal Navy warships could be sunk by more advanced weapons.
It comes as a former Tory defence minister previously warned that Britain is woefully unprepared for a major drone assault and needs its own Israel-style ‘Iron Dome’ to protect itself.
Tobias Ellwood feared the UK had no adequate way to shield itself from a full-scale invasion of explosive kamikaze drones – like those seen bombing Ukraine and Israel.
His comments followed mysterious sightings of unmanned aerial vehicles – UAVs – brazenly circling military bases in the UK and US, which prompted alarm.
Mr Ellwood – a former chairman of the Commons defence committee – warned Britain needed to ‘wake up’ and ‘recognise our critical national infrastructure is so exposed’.
‘Why don’t we have an Iron Dome capability? Because these are just passive drones flying over a runway causing disruption,’ he told LBC’s Tom Swarbrick last month.
A boy rides a donkey near one of the batteries of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system
Tobias Ellwood, a former defence minister, warned Britain needed its own Iron Dome to stop future drone incursions (he is pictured on LBC)
‘Imagine as I say if something far more powerful, more kinetic such as one of those Iranian drones were to be launched from the English Channel.
‘What protection do we have there? We don’t. And that I’m afraid is the very dark world that we’re now entering.’
Last month a senior military chief also warned the UK had ‘never been more at risk of an attack from Russia’.
Writing for Mail+, General Sir Richard Shirreff said Britain could be overrun by Russia in a week and that the nation must desperately start preparing for war.
The former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe feared the UK would be vulnerable to a barrage of hypersonic missiles, capable of ripping through the sky at 11 times the speed of sound, which could obliterate London.
‘You might regard it as scaremongering,’ he wrote.
‘But with Ukraine and Russia about to see an enforced ceasefire imposed by President Donald Trump as he returns to the White House next month – a ceasefire that favours only the Kremlin – Britain and Western Europe have never been more at risk of an attack from Russia.
‘We have to prepare, if we are not to suffer a swift and catastrophic defeat… and a war lost before it is barely begun.’
Former British Army Captain Mr Ellwood said Britain should increase defence spending to three per cent of GDP – just over £68billion. Labour is currently committed to spending 2.5 per cent of national income on the military.
Meanwhile, despot Vladimir Putin is pumping 6.3 per cent of GDP on the Kremlin’s military – roughly £114billion.
