The Tories want to build 'Britannia Shield', essentially 'a British Iron Dome'

A PLAN BY the Conservative party in the UK for a weapons system to defend Britain against long-range missiles and drones is not a gimmick, leader Kemi Badenoch has insisted.

Badenoch also shied away from comparisons between her party’s proposed “Britannia Shield” proposals and Israel’s defence system, after a Conservative press release dubbed it “in essence, a British Iron Dome”.

The press release said that the system would provide a network of radar, command systems and interceptor missiles to counter threats like drones and long-range missiles.

Israel’s Iron Dome system can shoot down short-range rockets fired from up to 70km away and has been heralded as a template for other nations.

Last year, US President Donald Trump promised to deliver a $175 billion (€156.2 billion) ‘Golden Dome’ missile defence system by the end of his term. 

The Conservatives have said that the proposed Britannia Shield system would require an investment of some £10 billion (€11.8 billion) but military experts have already expressed doubt this would be enough to build such a system.

Asked by Times Radio whether the plans were a gimmick, Badenoch replied: “No, not at all. Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge has been speaking to senior military figures. He’s a former defence procurement minister. He knows what he’s talking about, they know what they are talking about.”

Badenoch denied Britannia Shield would be the same as Israel’s Iron Dome after a Tory press release made the comparison.

The term was picked up by several newspapers which described her plans as a British Iron Dome on their front pages.

 Badenoch 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.”

Asked why newspapers had described it as an Iron Dome, Badenoch said: “You’ll have to speak to the newspapers about that. I called it the Britannia Shield.

“But we are explaining to people that missile defence systems are things that we need right now. 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.

Meanwhile, Conservatives’ defence spokesperson James Cartlidge likened the phrase “Iron Dome” to the vacuum cleaner brand name “Hoover” when he was asked about the plan.

Cartlidge told the Press Association: “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.”

- With reporting by Press Association