Prepared for War?: Is the UK's air defence ready for conflict?

The next instalment of Sky News' Prepared For War? series looks at the UK’s hallowed out air defence.

The RAF has nine frontline fighter squadrons compared with 30 in operation near the end of the Cold War. In the Navy, only three of the six destroyers capable of shooting down ballistic missiles are in operation.

And on land, only four of the six ground-based air defence systems that can take out jets and missiles are in the UK with two deployed overseas.

Sky's Deborah Haynes reports.

#war #nuclearwar #defence

[teamtempest]

Can't even stop a dinghy so don't worry about air defence.

[unwjjgx]

14 years of tory self-interest, greed, naivety, bungling and lack of vision are coming home to roost

[shooter]

UK, defend itself, my arse, we wouldn't survive a bloody month!!...if that, we are so ill all our " so called " politicians are too busy lining their own pockets, instead of putting more money into would have to rely on other countries to defend we have a great Team of armed forces, they just don't have enough equipment!!!🤨🤨🫣

[SkankHunt-iznl]

As an English man in his 20's completely capable of joining the UK Military. Walking around London, I don't recognise this country anymore, for me this country is not worth fighting for.

[simonbrown]

I don't think a single country on earth could stop all drones and missiles in the event of a war.

[BobBuilder-mqwr]

No point, rishi will just give it all away anyway . We can defend with sauce pans and wooden spoons

[Johnsonjack]

We can't even stop migrants on boats how are we supposed to stop missiles and whole armies lol

[paulthomas-hhkv]

Unable to produce our own steel, have no industrial manufacturing, unable to recruit personnel. Too Woke For War 😊

[HzHz]

Who exactly are we meant to be fighting.
Pathetic warmongering.

[Baddy]

Depending on who is the agressor, it might be worth losing lol.

[Samuel-hdcp]

The UK has always relied on fighter aircraft to protect our airspace.
NATO as a whole has never emphasised AAA.

[richardvernon]

Short Answer is NO!!! And Air Defences have been always been a low priority since the 1950's. Bloodhound Mk 2 was a very good bit of kit against manned aircraft, but useless against Cruise or Ballistic missiles.

[monkeyboy]

If Can't Shapps conscripts me for the army I'm going to wear a name badge and pretend to be someone else - he'll understand.

[basedglennuk]

Little Britain needs to stop poking big hornets' nests❗️

[scar]

One old fella with some old equipment, the enemies must be scared.

[Muirton]

I would say our keepers across the pond woukd keep us safe but in a third world war self preservation would kick in and we would be on our own.

[rcfigzg]

I'm not fighting for this middle class woman

[berrymangood]

And now they couldn’t defend the refrigerator

[bokami]

It's time to call on Captain Mainwaring & Sergent Wilson

[varadharajannadarajah]

First we need to come out of rainbow flags and woke mentality to make ourselves ready to face conflicts. I don't think there is any equipment issue.