A British ‘Iron Dome’: the Israelisation of the UK military is underway

A British version of Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system will soon launch. Skyhammer, based on Israel’s advanced missile defences, is being made by Cambridge Aerospace. The idea, floated in November 2025 by an arms-firm linked ex-general, has quickly come to fruition.

Iron Dome shoots down missiles and drones launched at the settler-colonial state.

Manufacturing and tech website Evertiq reported the UK project was underway on 29 April. But the original government press release slipped under the radar on 10 April. Cambridge Aerospace is backed by Google billionaire Eric Schmidt and the only figure available for costing is a report that the firm raised:

more than $130m (£96m) to build low-cost interceptor rockets intended to knock out missiles and drones, with plans to develop a Skyhammer system for the UK’s Armed Forces.

The company’s website said on 10 April:

The UK Ministry of Defence has today (10 April 2026) announced that it is purchasing a significant number of Skyhammer air defence systems from UK-headquartered scale-up Cambridge Aerospace, with deliveries starting from May. The company has committed to delivering these units to the MOD over the next six months.

The firm, a relatively new kid on the arms trade block, said:

Founded in late 2024, Cambridge Aerospace develops advanced air defence systems designed to deliver high performance at significantly lower cost than traditional solutions.

Adding:

Its first product, Skyhammer, has a range of over 30 km and a top speed of 700 km/h, enabling it to intercept a wide range of aerial threats, including drones and low-speed missiles.

Skyhammer — Israeli thinking, British firm

The government statement makes no mention of Israel, yet the defence press has pointed out the obvious. Here is Global Defence News:

Britain does not operate a homeland ballistic missile defence system comparable to Israel’s Iron Dome, with the Royal Navy’s Type 45 destroyers and their Sea Viper missiles providing the only ballistic missile defence-related capacity, albeit limited in homeland applications due to fleet size and radar coverage.

As of May 2026, if reports are correct, the UK will have a comparable system.

Defence secretary John Healey said in the 10 April press release celebrating the firm’s progress:

We are applying the approach for UK support to Ukraine and accelerating contracts with the most innovative British businesses to rapidly expand support to Gulf partners and equip our own forces with anti-drone tech.

Adding:

Our government backing for Cambridge Aerospace is a prime case of a veteran-founded UK defence start-up scaling at pace to deliver new interceptor missiles within weeks for our Armed Forces and Gulf partners, and good jobs and security here in the UK.

The firm’s website offers little detail on governance, but CEO Stephen Barrett lectured in engineering at elite universities like Cambridge and UCL.

The rise of drones and counter-drone warfare has written global defence strategy. The UK is part of this new proliferation In doing so they have recruited ideas from the battlefields of Ukraine and the genocidal actions of Israel. And, as ever, profit-seeking tech billionaires are tangled up in this radical shift too.

Featured image via EDRMagazine