Britain's defences 'unacceptable' as Israel-style iron dome considered | Gen. Rupert Jones 

The UK's idea of an iron dome would be WW2 barrage balloons.

One of my favourite bands is Houthi and the Blow Fish... Never expected them to be a threat to our national security... We live in such strange times

Wrong, They want the iron dome , for London Not the UK. always about London.

The primary duty of government with the support of opposition parties is the defence of the country and its people. !!!!!!! Politicians need to get their act together.

Could not agree more - no vision, no leadership, no perception of developing dangers, no serious move to improve our armed services - future for UK not curr3ntly looking good unless the GOVERNMENT “WAKES UP”. 😢

Ok let’s totally overlook the obvious, any missile fired at the UK would have to come over a number of other countries airspace who would more than likely shoot them down. The UK has already deployed its own version of Patriot system it’s called Sky Sabre and can target 23 objects at any one time on top of the navy who have Sea Viper which is the anti ballistic defence system. The US has a number of bases in the UK if there was a missile threat to any of them do you not think that they’d bring in their own patriot systems for protection. We are an island at the far end of Europe there is a reason we haven’t worried about air defence in the same way Poland has too a missile fired would be detected and RAF jets would be in the sky before it’s got over Europe.

We should sort the NHS out first.

"We now want one of those"... Great interview!

The UK also has potential Iranian and Hamas fifth columns.

the enemy will not attack by air, they are already here living among us

It's just another way of turning public money into private money. There are only 4 or 5 countries that spend more on defense than UK and they're giant countries. Where did all that money go?

Really good we had a Tory Gov looking after the UK

No excuses for the the UK's armed services to suffer any further under funding..No more waffling get them up to strength NOW! It defies belief that this has been allowed to happen over too many years.

100% Sunak will be on the phone to his father in-law Narayana Murthy getting the contracts ready for Infosys. At this rate he will drag out an election until January 2025.

Politicians should not be involved in Defence matters other than to rubber stamp what they are told by the military.

Isn’t it sad that a nation that invented so much and led the way in so much technology and industry a few decades ago, is now light years away from developing anything like this. But hey… we’re really hot at hedge funds, making money by betting on companies failing. So it’s not all bad. Makes you proud to be British. Guess that’s what happens when you put 3rd rate bank managers in charge of a country.

For _decades_ the British defence budget has been raided to pay for social spending without raising taxes.

We live on a small island so surely with the right technology and investment we can turn it into a Air defence ship rather than an aircraft carrier, we shouldn’t have to rely on ships as our main aa defence, a part of it yes but not the main part, we need a land based system with facilities on every corner of our little island with vast amounts of resources for possible prolonged conflict also we need to invest in lazer land based systems which hopefully some time in the future with more research and investment can create an almost impenetrable shield around our shores along with other systems including space based systems

Britains greatest defense is it’s horrible food & gloomy weather

Having governments that do their best to avoid conflict is what the people want. We do not want to line the pockets of military industrial complex shareholders

And these are the people who govern us.

Isn't the point of the dome to protect from threats outside?

What an absolute shame that Britain even needs to consider such a system! And it's all due to the mad ambitions of one tiny little man who happens to personally own the largest country on earth which is also armed with nukes.

good diplomacy is an effective defense, know how to pick allies and when not to get involved in global conflicts.

There are ways of structuring and engineering air defenses to minimize costs and maximize resiliency.

That's really bad news for the UK

When, oh WHEN are we going to hear these words from our politicians??!! But would Joe Public listen? Unlikely ... 🙄

Wow and Army General thinks the army should get more money, another well balanced video for the times.

We need to defend ourselves from something we started 😂

Nicely said.

Don't panic Mr Mainwaring !,😂

Bullying is riff right across the entire force.

This gentleman should do his own podcast called "Rupert the Rupert" !!? Great idea

We do have SAMs. It is called Sky Sabre, or CAMM, or Sea Ceptor. Depending on if its on a ship or land etc. They are already fitted on the ships, and we have them based around the UK

During the GWoT a hysterical emphasis was placed on asymetrical warfare, anti-terrorism, peacekeeping and nation building. I understand that getting kit that enlarges your success chances in these missions(whether some of those should have been done or not) but NOT at the detriment of the primary mission; conventional near-peer warfare at serious scale!!! Certainly because building up for that takes way too much time and money in order to get that back up to scratch again. The problem I see is that too often military leadership(current and former) too easily put this at the feet of politicians while for a large part they themselves were pushing this, it is NOT simply underinvestment but selling wholesale the conventional material.

That fact we do NOT have this kind of system anyway is an utter farce!!!

Get back the Scot as minister for defence......I know he resigned but he forsaw all of this.....They did it with Cameron!!!!!

We already have an iron doom.

Wouldn’t need to use this trade route if we were in the EU our biggest trading neighbour😂😂😂😂😂😂

We don't need anything new that doesn't exist already; we just need to acquire these items. I don't even care that our IFVs are old, they are good, better than what we will be up against and proven in battle. So let's just make 1000s of these! Instead what we do s throw hundreds of millions at new designs over the course of decades that never make it to production. Leaving us with old equipment, millions spent and nothing to show for it. This is what Russia does get right, small improvements over a long time. There's no point making miracle vehicles when modern drones can blow them up so cheaply. And yes, we need dirt cheap drones with target identification that can be made to a tight budget, and we need to make thousands and thousands of them.

Too late, too late !

Also, 'Iron dome' is the very short range componant of a multi layered system. Including 'Davids Sling' Etc which reaches out much further. Obviously we would be better off investing in long range systems first

We should definitely have a dome system we are an island so can be attacked from all sides

I don't need an iron dome, I need reasonably priced essential utilities and food.

Whatever you think about this fellow---he father was a BRAVE MAN.....and a SAY/DO fellow.

Sure we NEED to invest - *massively* - in ou ability to defend the British Isles .... the Islands where WE live. But squealing 'austerity' for 14 years that capability's been gutted. Worse *WHO in their right mind would join* ? PC diversity tickboxes now has precedence over capabilty - So you can have no confidence your squad mates will cover your back. Then there's the problem Pay, Pensions, Housing etc have all been eroded by MPs who have fantastically generous RPI index linked pensions. Who wants to fight for those grifters? 🙄 Let the MPs fight ......... Their mistakes will probably cause the next conflict anyway

I notice no one mentions that the Panama canal as run dry and shipping as stopped, this as nothing to do with war. As with the Suez being blocked by the large vessel or the port of Baltimore being also blocked by the bridge collapse caused by a large container vessel. The history of oil and gas is a history of non war exploitation.

We already have sky sabre and sea viper, dragon fire laser weapons, star streak and interceptor aircraft like tornados. Our short range game is pretty strong if we had the wear with all to increase the capacity. Long range sophisticated rockets would be very dangerous for the uk as they come in fast and need long range air defence to protect against them. Britain has no capacity to do this.

All to protect us from the Genocide in Palestine

Rishi Sunak and the conservatives have helped build this unsafe world; now announces chicken feed to make us safe.

I’m surprised Shapps hasn’t suggested issuing badminton rackets to swot incoming missiles- make a major saving on the defence budget.

A tiny island which nearly conquered the entire planet, is now unsure of their Iron Dome 😂😂😂

The uk government needs to stay out of these wars wich has nothing to do with them

The UK is an island. It should be heavily defended by air and sea 🌊 Whilst land forces based in Europe etc. If we cannot protect our skies and seas we are a sitting duck

We need drone manufactorums, underground automated drone factory plants, that use raw materials to create drones as and when they are required, they would spit out cheap housefly sized drones that swarm and destroy any quantity of larger drones.

Oh well, the "pint-sized loser" PM will sort it all out, no worries ... 🙄😔

The Iron Dome isn't relevant for the UK In any future scenario The reason is it's against very low and short flying projectiles... Who could shoot such a thing on Britain? The Irish?.... I doubt that's gonna be happening anytime shortly What is relevant at present is the Israeli Arrow or US THAAD for long range ICBMs, or the Patriot or David Sling for shorter-range missiles I think also France is developing a similar system

Unfortunately, Israel won't sell the Iron Dome system far less the David's Sling or Arrow ABM systems.

"Grown up conversation" this guy is hilarious! Britain needs to double defence spending immediately, while simultaneously refining its procurement system. Anything less and you are simply not being serious.

Any country need a multilayered air defense, for Israel its the Iron Dome, Patriot, David Sling and Arrow 2 and 3, Germany has now came up with th "European sky shield" that will be made up of IRIS T, Patriot and Arrow 3... as long as it answers each country needs and all systems are "talking together", including aming friendly countries (as seen in repelling the Iranian attack) it should be OK

UK 🇬🇧 should not be fighting for Israel. No one voted fir this.

Israel has to forbid sales of arms to britanistan

yes but you have the British Bake Off , and thats so kind it will lull your enemies into their kitchens

If not a similar protection to iron dome what are you proposing ? Oh no we can’t look at that ..but I have no clue what to use as an alternative…. Is he proposing we place naval vessels around the coast to shoot down incoming missiles ?

This guy also raved about the Ukrainian offensive and other nonsense. Iron domes, even in strategic locations can't defend against hypersonic missiles, they can also be overwhelmed by dud missiles and cheap drones in large numbers.

So hypothetically speaking how will UK defend itself against russian kalibr missiles?

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the British Army is buying hundreds of Boxer and Ajax armoured vehicles and as far as I can tell, NONE of them are anti-air/anti-drone variants. Our forces would get FPV drone attacked to dust. Rheinmetall make an air defence turret for Boxer called Skymaster. The Army needs to make choices to protect itself better

Conservatives, Labour and the Civil Service incompetence hav crucified this countries defence. Sickening.

It's strange if you ask me. We had the old fashioned equivalent during WWII that was all done by humans. Multi sensor detectors (audio, comms radio direction finding, and radar). They would bring all the data together in the plotting room and deduce tracks. Then they would allocate RAF resources (hurricanes and spitfires) to counter the threat. Well, we have all the pieces, but I know for a fact that talking about the integration of those capabilities in defence companies is frowned upon. Perhaps that's just my experience, but we can certainly do it. The problem is that no-one wants to do it unless they can charge a crazy cost. It's not the know-how. It's the will.

When did India land on the beaches?

I think David Murrin produced a defense review of his own a couple of years ago that made it all the way up to Boris Johnson in No.10 and in it was proposals on how to update our armed forces - I think one idea was a new type of frigate or destroyer with anti-ballistic missile capability that we could station around the UK. Why on Earth can’t Times Radio interview someone like David Murrin.

Joke. The enemy are coming in on boats

The UK has gone Woke they are done

Iron Dome? Don't make me laugh! The UK couldn't manage a blancmange Wendy house!

1/ You need a proper space launcher vehicle SLV. 2/ You need an anti ballistic missile strategic capability for hypersonic missiles 3/ You need an anti missile anti air bloodhound missile type update. 4/ you nèed anti drone capability for key sites Rapier update. Reality we mostly had it in the past a single war thor missile could take out ICBM if signal detonated conventional today. Bloodhound could hit high speed cruise missiles and jets. Rapiers deployed could hit drones at key locations. We have gone backwards, wake up to other nations efforts and get with the modern world. It is not expensive if done right. Ships limited potential and duration. UK is wide open defenceless almost. Israel faced a poor strategic minded opponent who behaved predictably and you could pick the date and why. Our Politicians, military, security services, found wanting for a change or not.

Sure Britain cant fund it's existing military, but why not embark on new expensive defence projects. You are a poor country now, get used to it. And if you stop provoking wars around the world then maybe you'll have less need to spend all your money on "defence". ✌️

Lets get our current military equipment working. Let alone a white elephant like this.

Is he saying "powerless"? Or "parless"? Maybe "pierless"?

We could always buy some Patriot systems. It's not rocket science.

What Iron Dome I know what our AD capability is and it really is not good

We can staff the armed forces with Indians

Dont we have a nuclear umbrella ?

"Our way of life" actually includes cheap oil and gas from Iraq, Russia, and cheap good made in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, while Russian, Chinese and Saudi oligarchs buy castles, football clubs and businesses in London-grad.

The militry is so run down that it can't defend Britain and will take 10 to12years ofsubstantial investment to fix. The RAF and RN can't defend neither our airspace or shores. The army so small that a "serious invasion" wouldn't be hindered by it. If Britain had to go to the aid of an allie or "friend" it would be seriously under strength and more of a liability than a help. This has been done to balance the books. The money has been wasted on the wrong thimngs. As things are now, is Britain worth defending? With a civil war not fsr off and the police out of control, the militry is just big enough big enough to supress a rebelion.🤔

Yea but with innovation of the latest laser weaponry we could theoretically have a laser gun on every house, lampost, telegraph pole in the land, in theory a blanket of light, so no we don't need an iron dome just use a lightshade instead. Duh.

HAHAHAHAH HAHAHA LONDONSTAN HAS FALLEN....forget trying to compare yourselves to a western nation 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Since when are short range rockets a threat to the UK?

UK armed services will never recover due to a rapidly shrinking population. The armed services to not offer an attractive career in 2024.

Defence from what or whom? 😂

Yeah so as I’m presuming the geographical landscape will not change all that much in the next x amount of years, why not secure the Suez Canal with defence capability and make it difficult for rebels to access zones where they can attack. What’s the point in over-defending an island that’s unlikely to be attacked? From what I can see it appears as though instead of decommissioning to balance risk, countries are expanding their arsenal to balance risk. I would hope a reasoned leader would rather balance risk through decommissioning than military expansion? Ahhhh it would appear as though Russia and North Korea would not agree to this, possibly China as well. Maybe if these countries felt the US were a fair, objective, internationally responsible, power diffusive country they wouldn’t feel the need to defend their freedoms and ideals. I think Vladimir Putin and Israel to a degree, are anomalies who are distorting any hope of peaceable international diplomacy. I personally don’t think the USA is responsible enough to command international affairs through its central banking control vehicle. The 2008 crisis, Israeli tolerance, incapability to counter Russian aggression and Guantanamo facilities are among a few examples of this. It’s not fair trade when the dollar is the reserve currency. If you want to run the world, run it properly.

David Cameron’s austerity legacy, thank goodness he is not in the Cabinet anymore. Oh Wait!😵

Instead of just reflexively spending more, the deeper question should be with the government already spending over two percent of gdp and the military is in such a tragic state, where is the money going? Is current spending getting value?

The UK is a sitting duck.... literally... We float in one place in the ocean within striking distance of Russia's smallest missiles and our coastal waters and beaches are open and un guarded. We don't even have a home guard with pitch forks and wooden play rifles. Very few of the population own a gun, few are trained in self defence, critical infrastructure and Installations are poorly guarded and they are sign posted. We are more vulnerable than we were in WW II. The Tory party, who are in the pocket of Russian Oligarchs, would put out the red carpet for an Invading Russian force.

What will happen if Iranian subs attack or sink merchant shipping en route to The Cape or even the approach to the Strait of Gibraltar? There just does not seem to be anything like enough sufficient assets to control both the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. Yes our way of lives are in real danger

It would be pretty easy for a select committee to highlight where the defence budget gets (badly) spent and stop it, but then their sponsors would get upset with them. Russian corruption pales into insignificance compared to ours.

Since we have anti ballistic missiles on the type 45's. It wouldn't be too bard to have 3 or 4 land based sites with silo's for a number of the same missiles. There's enough former bases still owned by the MoD that could be redeveloped to give maximum coverage of the UK. Even if they put 60 missiles per site and those cost £1 million each thats only £180 million thats less than what politician's claim per year in expenses.

Yes what we need is to waste more money on "defence" vanity projects. After all its not like there's anything else we could be spending it on

Never seen a guy talk for so long and say nothing substantive. Disappointing

Iron Dome is more like a paper bag.