Iran’s missiles Cannot Be Stopped By UK Defences

If Iran launched a rocket strike on the UK akin to the one that was tried on Diego Garcia this weekend, Britain would have to rely on American missile defence systems stationed in Europe.

The warning came after Tehran released two ballistic missiles on Friday night towards the base in the Indian Ocean, which is jointly operated by the US and the UK.

The island lies 2,360 miles from Iran, well beyond the 1,240 miles which was thought to be the outer limit of the regime’s reach. 

It potentially puts Paris, 2,609 miles away, and even London – 2,750 miles – within Iran’s range if, as some strategists fear, the country uses its Simorgh space launch technology to extend its missile range. RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus is just 1,000 miles from Tehran. 

Additionally, Israel issued a warning that Europe may be attacked by Iran’s new missile.

IDF chief of staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, in a video released on Saturday night. said: ‘Iran launched a two-stage intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 4,000km towards an American target on the island of Diego Garcia.

‘The missiles were not intended to hit Israel. Their range reaches the capitals of Europe. Berlin, Paris and Rome are all within direct threat range.’ The IDF later added that London is also in range. 

Steve Prest, a retired Royal Navy commodore, said: ‘Ballistic missiles are space rockets. They launch, they go really high up, and they come down really fast. If you’ve got a space programme, you’ve got a ballistic missile programme.’ 

In a ballistic attack, defence experts say Britain would be forced to rely on American SM-3 defence systems stationed across Eastern Europe, or the Patriot missiles used by the Germans, to intercept rockets.

Diego Garcia was the target of an attempted strike when Sir Keir Starmer gave the US authorisation to attack the Strait of Hormuz using British bases to defend ships from Iranian strikes.

Neither of the missiles fired at Diego Garcia hit their target, with one thought to have been shot down by a US warship’s SM-3 interceptor and the other failing in flight.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch accused Sir Keir of covering up the attempted aggression on Diego Garcia, saying the Prime Minister needed to ‘come clean’ over the details of the launch.

Government sources established that the attack occurred before an official statement later said it had allowed the US military to launch strikes on Iran from the island base to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz. This came as:

The US used ‘bunker buster’ bombs in a reported attack on Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility. The munition was designed to be dropped from B-2 stealth bombers to destroy targets up to 200ft underground.

The American military claimed that Tehran’s ability to threaten ships passing through the Straits of Hormuz had been ‘degraded.’

The UAE released a joint statement from 22 countries, including Britain, France, Germany, Bahrain and Australia, demanding that Tehran reopen the Straits of Hormuz to shipping.

Prices of vegetables in supermarkets could rise within weeks as the war in Iran makes the cost of fertiliser and energy soar.

Holidaymakers were scrambling to secure flights and switch destinations to dodge the threat of spiralling fares and disruption caused by the war.

Motorists could face a 1970s-style 50mph speed limit in an endeavour to save fuel under emergency plans.

Sir Keir promised Cyprus that the British airbase on the island would not be used by the Americans to strike Iran.

The Prime Minister spoke to Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and pledged that RAF Akrotiri would not be involved in his agreement with Mr Trump on the use of British bases in the war. 

This comes after Mr Christodoulides warned last week that when the war ends, he will demand negotiations about the fate of Britain’s ‘colonial’ military bases on the island.

General Sir Richard Barrons, a former Commander-in-Chief of British forces, said on Saturday that Iran’s power may have been ‘serially underestimated’.

General Sir Richard, who headed the UK’s Joint Forces Command between 2013 and 2016, said it was previously thought that ‘Iran’s missiles had a range of only 2,000 kilometres (1,240 miles) and Diego Garcia is 3,800 kilometres [2,360 miles] away from Iran’.

He was responding to questions over whether Mr Trump was right to say Britain had done ‘too little and too late’ or whether opponents of the war were correct that the UK had been sucked into an American war.

Meanwhile, vegetable prices could rise within weeks as the cost of fertiliser and energy surges, said National Farmers Union president Tom Bradshaw.

He said Britain no longer had the ability to make fertiliser domestically and was ‘absolutely at the mercy of world markets’.

One important source of fertiliser ingredients is the Middle East. The majority of these cross the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has closed, causing prices to skyrocket as farmers scramble to buy scarce supplies as the spring planting season approaches.

Prices of imported goods are likely to rise immediately because of higher transport costs, said Mr Bradshaw, adding that increases for other foods would begin to appear in the coming weeks.

He added: ‘For vegetables grown in heated greenhouses, such as cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes, it will be over the next month to six weeks that we will see those cost increases coming through to the retailer.’

It’s been 80 years since the end of the last war, and the UK has literally learnt nothing. Instead of moving forward, we have gone backwards. This is what happens when our government neglects the defence of the realm.

The problem is our government puts financing and sending our troops into wars that don’t concern us. We appear to be hellbent on protecting other nations before protecting our own, and conflict is then propelled forward with a costly failure and considerable innocent lives lost.

Our UK government doesn’t care about its people, but somehow the people believe that they do; it’s probably all that propaganda, but what’s even more worrying is that most people believe it because we have been brainwashed.

People are whining about welfare and benefits, but if our country does go to war, it will certainly impact our economy, and then those who moan will be moaning even more when they lose their jobs.

Money and votes are the only things that matter to our government.

We have been giving away billions of money to other countries for decades, but what do we get in return? Nothing.

Our government tell us that there’s no money in the pot, but obviously there is if they are cheerfully giving it to other countries, or are they just robbing it from the taxpayer to pay for genocide, which is totally illegal, I might add.