A British general has floated the idea of an Iron Dome-style anti-missile system for the UK. The Iron Dome is an Israeli air defence system used to shoot down rockets and missiles. The starting cost, General Richard Barrons told a military conference, was £75bn.

Complaining about ‘underfunding’ of the military and the risk of missile attacks, Barrons said:

If you want an Iron Dome over parts of the UK that matter – like the nuclear deterrent, maybe Whitehall… entry level £75 billion of which we have £1 billion. So we know we have a challenge.

UK to follow genocidal Israel’s Iron Dome example?

Barrons was addressing the Long War conference at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) held on 25 November.

For British generals, every public speech is a chance to argue for a bigger budget. This is despite the UK having a reported £60 billion war budget in 2024/2025. According to 2025 estimates, the UK has the 6th biggest military budget in the world.

Barrons also said that UK industry wasn’t producing weapons quickly enough. He warned it might take at least ten years to get up to speed:

But I think it will take a bit longer than that. And our analysis and our allies are telling us that maybe we have three to five years.

Depending on what happens in places like Ukraine in the coming weeks, it might feel sharper than that.

Militarising the British economy

Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry Luke Pollard also spoke at the event. Naturally, he blamed the previous government for current shortcomings:

We inherited a military that was underfunded, hollowed out armed forces, and a defence program that was unaffordable and frankly unfit to counter the rising effects we face.

Despite its dubious economic basis, which we’ve reported on, Pollard echoed the Labour pledge to militarise the British economy:

More businesses that are not yet a defence business need to understand that there is a market for them within defence.

As we reported this week, tech and AI firms are central to this plan:

That’s especially true of technology businesses that are able to sell in their products, their AI code, their data analytics, the autonomy advantages, dual use technology in a way that is not previously available even two three years ago in defence procurement, it’s a big challenge to harness the skills that we can see across society.

Militarising the economy will not save the UK. In close detail, it is a matter of parceling out public money to arms firms in the unfounded hope this will drive growth. The UK needs a holistic plan, not just for a greener, safer economy, but also for how it engages with world.

And while we’re at it, we could do without copying the example of a murderous settler colonial state hell bent on destroying Palestine.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

This post was originally published on Canary.