Could any of our experts explain why the news of the Diego Garcia attack attempt and the possible threat to London was notified to the world by Israel ? Do we, Brits, not have area threat coverage for such an important base ? Are our military planners unable to make such assessments on our behalf ?
Respectively.
1. Classified as “Embarrassment in Confidence” by the government and leaked to the WSJ by someone who wanted to embarrass same.
2. No. Our only BMEWS is Fylingdales in the UK and, for SRBMs, the radars on the T45 destroyers, the only available one of which is in the Med.
The US have THAAD and AEGIS destroyers in and around DG because it is both a vital air base for their forces and for deep sea port for their Pacific Resupply depot.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_...ealift_Command
It’s never been a major unit for the UK, we leased the island to the US back in the 1960s as a bare site and they they built everything in the 1970s and are responsible for defending it.
https://www.gov.uk/world/organisatio...cean-territory
3. See the above. Not a UK responsibility. We rented them a rock, everything else is up to the DoD.