Kemi Badenoch has pledged to spend £10 billion over ten years building a new integrated missile-and-drone defence system to protect the United Kingdom, British sovereign territories and military bases overseas.
The Conservative leader has named the proposed system “Britannia Shield”, with the party promising a network combining enhanced radar, command-and-control systems, interceptor missiles and counter-drone capabilities.
Shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge is setting out further details at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, describing the programme as potentially the most significant upgrade to Britain's air defences for generations.
The Conservatives say a minimum deployable capability would be delivered within five years, followed by further expansion and improvement during the subsequent five years.
£10bn over ten years
The Conservatives have committed up to £10 billion over a decade to Britannia Shield — equivalent to around £1 billion a year if spending were spread evenly across the period.
The party says the programme would form part of its wider commitment to increase UK defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030.
Badenoch has said that commitment would be funded through spending changes including welfare reforms. The funding figures are Conservative Party plans made while in opposition and have not yet been implemented.
What would Britannia Shield do?
The proposed system would integrate multiple layers of Britain's air defence rather than rely on a single interceptor or weapons platform.
Conservative plans include investment in:
- advanced radar and detection systems;
- integrated command-and-control infrastructure;
- interceptor missiles;
- counter-drone technology; and
- larger stocks of missiles and other defensive equipment.
The Conservatives say the network would be designed to defend critical national infrastructure and military facilities against modern aerial threats, including missiles and drones.
Its intended coverage would extend beyond mainland Britain to UK sovereign territories and British military bases overseas.
Badenoch: 'We do not get a second chance'
Announcing the proposal, Badenoch pointed to the growing use of missiles and relatively inexpensive drones in Ukraine and the Middle East.
She said: “If a missile or drone is launched at Britain, we do not get a second chance to wish we had prepared.”
Badenoch said Britannia Shield would be a national missile-and-drone defence system intended to protect the UK, its sovereign territories and British bases overseas.
Not simply a British Iron Dome
The proposal has widely been compared with Israel's Iron Dome, and Conservative publicity has itself used the comparison to explain the concept.
However, Badenoch has subsequently stressed that the proposed British system would not simply replicate Israel's Iron Dome.
Israel's Iron Dome is primarily designed to intercept short-range rockets and other aerial threats in circumstances very different from those faced by the geographically larger United Kingdom.
Badenoch said the Conservatives instead envisage a system tailored to the threats Britain faces, pointing to integrated air-defence programmes being developed by European countries including Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Britannia Shield would therefore be a broader integrated air-and-missile defence network rather than a direct copy of one Israeli system.
Minimum capability within five years
Under the Conservative timetable, Britannia Shield would reach a minimum deployable capability within five years of the programme beginning.
Further capability would then be added over the following five years.
Cartlidge has described the investment as necessary because of the changing threat from missiles and unmanned aircraft.
The programme would be one of the largest dedicated investments in UK air and missile defence for decades if implemented in full.
Experts question whether £10bn would be enough
The scale and cost of comprehensive UK missile defence remain contested.
General Sir Richard Barrons, a former commander of Joint Forces Command and co-author of the Strategic Defence Review, previously told the House of Commons Defence Committee that an entry-level system comparable with the protection many people associate with an “Iron Dome” could cost around £80 billion over ten years.
That estimate relates to a different and potentially much more extensive concept than the Conservatives' proposed Britannia Shield, but it illustrates the potential cost of providing comprehensive missile defence across the UK.
Badenoch has rejected suggestions that the £10 billion programme is intended to reproduce Israel's system nationwide.
Labour points to existing air-defence investment
The Government has criticised the Conservative announcement and pointed to its own investment in air and missile defence.
Labour says its defence programme includes around £1 billion for air defences and argues that the previous Conservative governments reduced the size of Britain's armed forces.
The Conservatives, meanwhile, are seeking to draw a dividing line over the pace and scale of future defence spending, with Badenoch committing her party to 3% of GDP by 2030.
Britannia Shield is currently an opposition policy commitment. No £10 billion programme has yet been commissioned and the proposed system would depend on a future Conservative government implementing the pledge.