Conservatives propose £10bn ‘Britannia Shield’ inspired by Israel’s Iron Dome

Party to unveil plans for one of UK’s ‘most significant military programmes since the cold war’

The Conservatives will announce plans to build a £10bn British “Iron Dome” similar to Israel’s air and missile defence system, which the party will christen “Britannia Shield” in an announcement at conference on Tuesday.

Claiming it was “one of Britain’s most significant military programmes since the cold war”, he will say it is one that was “totally necessary because of the threats we face”.

Military officials argue that the UK’s strategy is based around deterring any attack or a full-blown war with nuclear weapons and that any conflict that involved a direct threat to the British homeland would almost certainly involve Nato allies assisting.

The Conservatives will say the new system would be funded out of the defence uplift from their commitment last month to increase defence spending by more than £10bn a year to reach 3% of GDP by 2030.

The party will argue that the UK is being left behind in Europe when it comes to investment in air defences, which was criticised in a report from the defence select committee last November. The government has currently committed about £790m for integrated air and missile defence (IAMD) in the Defence Investment Plan.

That would in practice be a fundamentally different model to the Israeli Iron Dome system, which protects a country a twelfth of the size of Great Britain and is primarily designed to counter short-range threats like rockets and artillery, with other defence systems that counter longer-range missiles.

The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, said that Labour were “failing that basic test” of keeping the country safe. The chancellor, John Healey – who previously quit as Keir Starmer’s defence secretary over the limitations of his defence settlement – is now unlikely to set out when the UK will meet the target of spending 3% of GDP on defence until next year’s spending review.

“If a missile or drone is launched at Britain, we do not get a second chance to wish we had prepared. Families can make their own choices. Businesses can build and innovate. But only government can defend the country.”