We need a British ‘Iron Dome’ – and Israel can help, say politicians

He continued: “Iran is becoming more emboldened, funding and arming groups that threaten Western nations, not just in the Middle East but globally. Israel’s intelligence and counterterrorism capabilities are among the best in the world, and closer cooperation allows Britain to benefit from that expertise.”

Similar calls have also been made by pro-Israel group Labour Friends of Israel (LFI).

LFI Chair Jon Pearce MP told the JC: "The threat from Russia and its key ally Iran are clear and present for the UK and our allies. Given the increasing uncertainty around the US’s commitment to European defence, the case for a British ‘Iron Dome’ is stronger than ever.

“Britain must work much more closely with advanced technology and defence partners like Israel to guard ourselves against the danger posed by the Moscow-Tehran axis”.

A report published by the organisation in November last year recommended a bilateral defence dialogue between top officials in the Ministry of Defence and Israel’s Directorate of Defence Research and Development.

It also called on both countries to share practices across land, air and naval warfare, cyber security and engage in joint war-gaming and scenario-mapping exercises.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland and Germany have already purchased Israeli defence technology.

In November 2023, Finland signed an agreement worth an estimated 317 million euros for the David’s Sling air defence system that can intercept rockets and missiles with a range of 40-300 kilometres.

Also in 2023, Israel – with the agreement of the US, a partner in the programme – agreed a $3.5 billion deal to sell the Arrow-3 anti-ballistic missile system – which successfully intercepted missiles fired at Eilat by Iranian-backed Yemeni terror group the Houthis – to Germany.

Their deployment is set to take place this year.

The UK should “explore which assets used and tested by Israel to defend the state and its civilians offer potential for acquisition and deployment by UK armed forces”, LFI added.

According to Philip Ingram MBE, a former senior British military intelligence officer, Israeli military and defence products may appeal to European nations such as the UK because they are “combat tested to a degree that most other countries can only dream of, because of the very nature of Israel fighting almost for its survival ever since it became an independent country”.

He agreed that the uncertainty over President Trump’s commitment to Europe means there is now a “huge amount of scope for increased cooperation” between Israel and the UK.

Although he thought there wasn’t a need for a like-for-like Iron Dome for the UK, the former Intelligence Corps Colonel said that “the UK does need better anti-ballistic missile defence capability, certainly around key targets”.

Given the deep ties between US and Israeli defence firms, it will be interesting to see whether “Israeli manufacturers step up to potentially fill any void that might come from the US”.

Despite public disagreements over the conduct of Israel’s war in Gaza and the partial suspension of arms sales by the Labour government last year, Britain’s armed forces were operationally involved in defending Israel following Iran’s attack on the country in October last year.

According to Ingram, the UK-Israeli security cooperation is still invaluable.

“The UK sees Israel as one of its closest Middle East based partners, and there's a lot of cooperation, military to military, in learning lessons from the unique style of operations that Israel's got, but also its recognised that Israel is a leading defence and security manufacturer”.

The announcement by the government last week that individuals in the UK working for the Iranian state must register with the government or face improsionment demonstrates that the threat of Iran to the UK is “very well recognised”.

“There will be almost certainly close cooperation between the different intelligence agencies when it when it comes to dealing with the Iranian threat”, he added.

However, any increased defence ties between Israel and the UK may run into political difficulties.

Lord Spellar, a former defence minister in Tony Blair’s government told the JC last week that the composition of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government would make any collaboration much harder.

Ingram saw the decision to impose a limited arms sales through a political lens: “What they didn't want was a backbench revolt early on in a government that could have destabilised a lot of what they're trying to get through in other ways”, he said.

The former intelligence officer added that, even though it wasn’t necessarily their intention, the messaging around the government’s decision was “exploited by Israel's enemies and by the UK's enemies, and that has damaged our reputation internationally.”

However, he added that UK-Israel relationship “at a working level” wasn’t affected “it in the slightest”.