The UK is steadily building air defences spanning lasers, jets and missiles, amid calls to develop an Israeli-style “Lion Dome”. Despite this, analysts warn that even if far more money and effort is poured in, British cities will still be highly vulnerable to attack.

“You cannot cover all of your civilian population, it’s not possible,” Justin Bronk, an airpower expert at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), told The i Paper .

Bronk said there is a divide between the public demand for protection and the fact that what you would choose to protect from a strategic and operational point of view – “with the inherently limited amount of layered air defence” – would not be generally your cities, “it would be your key military bases, to preserve your ability to fight”. New Feature

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