Three months ago Iran launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles toward the U.K.-controlled island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Neither reached its target: A U.S. destroyer shot down one and the other broke up in flight. Yet the strike blew an enormous hole in the credibility of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s grandiose foreign and security policy.

That insight is now not only shared by his critics. His own Defense Secretary John Healey has issued a blistering resignation letter, essentially saying that Britain’s leader is not capable of dealing with threats to the country and NATO.

Like the rest of Europe, the U.K. is vulnerable to missiles and drones. But unlike some allies it has almost no independent air defenses. According to defense analyst Francis Tusa, in March the Royal Navy could deploy just one serviceable Type 45 destroyer equipped to shoot down ballistic missiles. That ship would have had to be permanently based in the Thames estuary to defend London, leaving the rest of the country totally exposed.

This unpreparedness for war is replicated across Britain’s shrunken, ill-equipped armed forces. In March, ministers tried to reassure voters that the U.K. had everything it needed to defend the country. It wasn’t true and Healey knew it. The prime minister ignored the wake-up call and the rot set in for one of the most crucial relationships in government, between leader and defense chief.

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© The Japan Times