Chilling 20-minute warning Brits would get if Iran launched missile at UK

Here's how fast it can travel

On Sunday, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) warned that European capitals are under threat from Iran’s missiles following the attack on the UK-US Diego Garcia military base on the Chagos Islands.

According to the IDF, Iran's “terrorist regime” has missiles that could reach London, Paris or Berlin.

Meanwhile, experts have warned that UK’s missile defences may not be equipped to intercept a missile launched by Iran, and that the country's warning systems are only very short-notice.

Such a missile would first be detected by intelligence satellites, then the UK's senior security officials would reportedly rush to Pindar, a bunker five floors beneath the Ministry of Defence.

And Iran’s fastest missile, the Khorramshahr-4, can travel at speeds of up to mach 10 (7,672 mph second), allowing it to cover the 2,750 miles between Tehran and London in around 20 minutes.

These missiles were used by Tehran during an attempted attack on towards the UK-US base Diego Garcia, demonstrating that it can launch missiles with a 2,485-mile range.

According to experts, any missile fired at the country would need to be light and fast in order to make contact, meaning that payloads would have to be much smaller.

Senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, Dr Sidharth Kaushal, told The Times that the worst-case scenario would need a payload weighing between 450 to 550kg.

Only if it reached the UK first, a payload of this size could destroy a building.

“It would have to fly a long way over multiple air defence networks and be very precise” a military source told The Times.

The UK, as well as being protected by its own Type 45 destroyers, is protected by NATO's Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system.

This system is designed to intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Experts had previously said that an Iranian attack on Britain was very unlikely, with Iran’s offensive capabilities not assessed as long-reaching enough.

However, this was before the weekend when news of the attempted attack on the military base emerged.

According to UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, these two ballistic missiles that were fired towards the military base were “reckless Iranian threats”.

Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Steve Reed, has disputed that Iran is even capable of hitting the UK in the first place, adding that there was “no specific assessment that the Iranians are targeting the UK or [that they] even could if they wanted to”.

“I’m not aware of any assessment at all that they are even trying to target Europe, let alone that they could if they tried. But even if they did, we have the necessary military capability to defend this country”, he added.