Russian missiles hitting the UK is not a far-fetched idea

The British government has ordered an overhaul of the country’s plans for dealing with a direct attack on the UK, according to recent reports.

- KEIR GILES

It’s a belated recognition not only of the growing threat to Britain itself from its enemies abroad but also of the huge gaps in Britain’s defences when dealing with such threats. The realisation has been steadily dawning over the last few years that war is no longer something that only happens to other people a long way away, and that it will never directly affect British people at home.

Adversaries like Russia have spent years pouring resources into ways of striking targets at immensely long distances – not only missiles with ranges of thousands of kilometres but also covert and semi-deniable means of attack, such as cyberstrikes and recruiting proxies to carry out arson, sabotage and assassination.

And the warnings have been coming through loud and clear from both inside and outside government that the UK is illprepared to defend itself against these attacks, or to deal with the consequences if its defences fail.

In April, a senior RAF officer was among the first in his position to be explicit about the inadequacy (or, by some accounts, close to non-existence) of the UK’s air and missile defences – and this after decades of Russia sending its long-range bomber flights towards British airspace.

This week, minister Pat McFadden described cyberattacks against British supermarkets as a “wake-up call” (yet another one) to improve the country’s cyberdefences.