# British air defences.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-air-defences/330380>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 10, 2005, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-air-defences/330380 "2005-11-10T12:50:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-air-defences/330380/1 "2005-11-10T12:50:36Z")

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Does the UK still have any permanent air defences? After reading the stealth fighter thread, someone wondered what would happen if a stealth bomber was to try to bomb a first world nation, such as the UK. So, do we still have any SAM sites protecting us from aerial bombardment or have they been demolished since the end of the Cold War (if we ever had any at all)? Would we rely on RADAR and fighter interceptors to defend us?

I know that just after 9/11 several temporary SAM sites were erected around nuclear power stations and other prime targest, IIRC, but that isn’t what I’m asking.

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**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-air-defences/330380/2 "2005-11-10T17:27:53Z")

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according to this message board there are 30 rapier systems defending the UK. [http://www.strategypage.com/messageboards/messages/7-213.asp](http://www.strategypage.com/messageboards/messages/7-213.asp)

However most of the defense is aircraft based, still biased to a Russian attack

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**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-air-defences/330380/3 "2005-11-10T18:26:29Z")

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There was an item on the news about the aircraft at RAF Conningsby a little while ago. Beyond that and other publically available information, if you need to ask, you don’t really need to know, do you?

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**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-air-defences/330380/4 "2005-11-11T15:14:03Z")

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> [@scm1001](#):
>
> according to this message board there are 30 rapier systems defending the UK. [http://www.strategypage.com/messageboards/messages/7-213.asp](http://www.strategypage.com/messageboards/messages/7-213.asp)
> 
> However most of the defense is aircraft based, still biased to a Russian attack

AWACS + Tornado ADV + some Eurofighter Typhoons + a few armed Hawks, as far as I am aware.

Rapier is a tactical point defense system, and is presumably deployed round very high-value targets.

I would assume the situation is similar in the CONUS - blanketing a country with SAM coverage would require a prohibitive number of units, whereas interceptors can cover a lot of territory.