Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to ensure that the UK has adequate ground-based surface-to-air defence capabilities to defend itself from potential medium- and long-range missile attacks.

To complement the Air Defence already provided by the RAF’s Typhoon Force, Defence has committed funds in year to significantly enhance its Counter-Uncrewed Air Systems capabilities. The British Army, through its Land Ground Based Air Defence (GBAD) Programme, plans to spend more than £3 billion over the next ten years modernising its GBAD, with substantial investment in scaling, extending, and integrating its Air Defence capability. Similarly, the Secretary of State has recently announced a £405 million upgrade to the Royal Navy’s Sea Viper Air Defence System that will enable it to defeat ballistic missile threats. Further detail on Defence’s plan for protecting the United Kingdom against attack from the skies can be found in the Defence Command Paper Refresh which was published on 18 July 2023.