Defending UK airspace

DOI: https://doi.org/10.58248/PN751

• The UK faces a complex range of aerial threats, including from missiles, drones and manned aircraft. Some threats are increasingly sophisticated and harder to detect or intercept.
• The UK’s integrated air and missile defence (IAMD) capabilities were labelled as a “critical weakness in the nation’s defences” in an opening statement to a debate in the House of Commons in November 2024.
• At the 2025 NATO Summit, allies agreed to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035. NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, said that he expected allies to agree to a “400% increase in air and missile defence”, but this was not supported in the summit declaration.
• The UK operates a ‘multi-layered’ defence system across the armed forces, incorporating assets such as Typhoon aircraft and Sea Viper missile systems.
• Modernisation efforts are underway, including upgrades to ballistic missile defence, early warning systems and the development of advanced technology, such as directed energy weapons. The UK’s aerial defence is reinforced through critical alliances and collaborations such as NATO IAMD.
• Some stakeholders say significant capability gaps remain, particularly in early warning and detection, ground-based air defence, ballistic and hypersonic missile defence, and passive defence.

This briefing was produced in consultation with experts and stakeholders, who are listed at the end of the briefing PDF. The briefing was co-funded by the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council. POST would like to thank everyone who contributed their expertise and acted as external reviewers of this briefing.