Tories pledge £1bn a year for Britannia Shield missile and drone air defence system

The Conservatives are promising to invest £1bn a year in a new "Britannia Shield" Iron Dome-style system to strengthen the UK's air defences.

The Tories say Britannia Shield will provide a network of radar, command and control systems to detect incoming strikes.

Party leader Kemi Badenoch described the kind of situations where it might be deployed.

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"For example, people come in very close to the English Channel and are able to send drones and missiles at our critical national infrastructure," she said.

"How do we protect ourselves from this? And that is what we have announced today. 

"We've called it Britannia Shield, and it is to protect critical national infrastructure across the UK and places like Cyprus and even the Falkland Islands as well."

Shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge later told the Conservative Party conference that the system was intended to provide security in the face of Argentinian "sabre-rattling over the Falklands".

"With our base on Cyprus attacked and Argentina sabre-rattling over the Falklands, I make this promise – when we procure those air defence systems for our nation, we will always, in parallel, reinforce our sovereign bases and overseas territories."

In an earlier round of media interviews, Ms Badenoch distanced herself from descriptions of Britannia Shield as an "Iron Dome".

Experts say the party would struggle to deliver anything equivalent to the Israeli system on the money they are suggesting.

Siddarth Kaushal, a senior research fellow at the defence thinktank RUSI, set out how an Iron Dome setup works in other countries.

"When we think of dome sort of multi-layered air and missile defense systems as they've been fielded in Israel, but also in Ukraine, they've been fielded against a very different kind of threat than the one Britain faces in terms of the threats both countries face are quite multi-layered," he said.

"You know, Israel faces everything from rockets through to ballistic missiles, and also it exists at greater proximity with more limited warning times. 

"By contrast, we're looking at a much more single vector, single-type threat, which is Russian cruise missiles coming from the north."

The Conservatives are promising £1bn every year for a decade of dedicated funding for Britannia Shield.