A defence expert has warned that the UK does not have the weapons to shoot down Russian missiles should Vladimir Putin launch direct attacks on Britain.
His propagandists have been banging the same old drum about how they have us in their sights and a list of 23 potential targets has been waved around, with many of the UK's largest cities on the list.
There are also places like Rosyth which are major parts of the defence industry, so you can see the logic behind the targets on this list.
However, if these are the targets in the event that World War Three breaks out then defence expert Francis Tusa of Defence Eye told LADbible that the UK is pretty much 'defenceless' for the time being.
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He explained that Russia had been threatening the UK with nuclear weapons 'almost since the start of the Ukraine war', but despite the 'bluster' from Moscow the accepted truth is 'you use nukes, we use them back'.
Tusa explained that thus far Britain's nuclear deterrence has done its job in warding off the possibility of a Russian attack on the UK, and that as far as targets are concerned you could strike almost anywhere in the UK and hit something important.
He said: "There has been a hell of a lot of sabre-rattling from the Russians and some of the targets on the list, you could quite frankly almost throw darts on a map of the UK and come up with a reasonable target list."
Regarding the question of whether Russia could launch nukes at the UK, the answer the expert gave is 'yes, and you know what would happen', explaining that British nuclear submarines have everything they need to retaliate if we are attacked, including their own list of targets.
However, Russian missile strikes don't necessarily have to be nuclear as they've been bombarding Ukraine with non-nuclear weapons, and if these were used against the UK, the expert had a warning about Britain's capability to defend ourselves.
A nuclear attack would likely trigger a nuclear retaliation, and therein lies the defence, but Tusa warned that responding to a non-nuclear attack with a nuclear weapon was 'never the doctrine during the Cold War'.
Plus there's the possible future scenario of Russia going so far as to declare war on the UK, even if they don't stretch to nuclear weapons the question of stopping other kinds of missiles is still one that would need an answer.
So what's Britain to do if Russia fires non-nuclear missiles at us?
The Royal Navy's Type-45 destroyers have the capability to 'intercept incoming missiles', with Tusa saying they'd done that very job in the Red Sea intercepting ballistic missiles fired by the Houthi.
However, the defence expert warned that 'they've got to be in the right place to do it'.
"They’re based in Portsmouth and if you’ve got something being fired from Western Russia those Type-45s can’t engage the missiles," he warned.
"They’re just in the wrong place.
“If you were looking to protect, for sake of argument, London you’d pretty much have to have one sitting in the Thames estuary 24/7, 365. Which is a bit weird.
“It’s not a very effective use of a large, expensive ship.”
He explained that other countries were spending a lot of money on surface-to-air missile layers, with them having demonstrated their effectiveness in Ukraine, but it looks like the UK wouldn't be buying them for another few years so until then, the means to shoot down incoming attacks depends on ships being in the right place.
He said: “The numbers being spent on that are eye-watering, it’s €20 billion, €30 billion, even more. Germany’s buying the Israeli Arrow 3 and then Arrow 4 ballistic intercept system specifically because they recognise the threat.
"Over here I’m told they won’t buy what are euphemistically called ‘the effectors’, that is missiles, we won’t be buying these until the 2030s. So until then the UK is defenceless.
"The systems exist, it’s just in terms of a permanent defence of the UK we just don’t have any weapons. We just don’t have anything."
Of course if Russia fired non-nuclear missiles at the UK and it could be proven it came from them, then the UK could trigger Article 5 of NATO, the clause which says an attack on one country is an attack on all, and Russia would find itself at war with many other countries.
For the time being the deterrence is the defence, whether that be nuclear deterrence or NATO membership.
The full list of Russia's alleged UK targets
- Glasgow – BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, Thales
- Belfast – Harland & Wolff, Spirit Aerosystems, Thales
- Fivemiletown – Cooneen Defence
- Barrow-in-Furness – BAE Systems
- Bolton – MBDA
- Telford – RBSL
- Aberporth – QinetiQ, Tekever
- Merthyr Tydfil – General Dynamics
- Glascoed – BAE Systems
- Bristol – Airbus, BAE Systems, GKN Aerospace, Leonardo, MBDA, QinetiQ, Rolls-Royce
- HMNB Devonport – Babcock
- Yeovil – Leonardo
- Aldermaston – AWE
- London – Helsing, Palantir
- Stevenage – Airbus, MBDA
- Ampthill – Lockheed Martin
- Derby – Rolls-Royce
- Sheffield – Sheffield Forgemasters
- Warton & Samlesbury – BAE Systems
- Newton Aycliffe – Octric Semiconductors
- Tyne & Wear – BAE Systems, Leonardo
- Edinburgh – Leonardo
- Rosyth – Babcock, QinetiQ
Topics: UK News, Russia, Vladimir Putin, NATO
Joe Harker