Photonic,
Thanks for the NY Times link, some very interesting pieces in there in addition to the one you originally posted.
Amongst the available pieces is a short VLOG describing the US' missile defence capabilities. It made the cogs turn a bit more after I had been thinking whilst out for a pre-dinner walk - does the UK need to bring back the SAM capability we used to have. And by that, I don't mean reinventing Bloodhound, or buying a few more Rapier or VSHORAD systems such as we saw deployed during the Olympics. But a new up to date system capable of dealing with threats such as those posed by ICBMs or ALCMs which I suspect are more likely than sqns of BLACKJACKs and BEARs in the North Sea.
Even during my time in, our AD capabilities have been pared back, both numerically and in terms of platforms that are multirole jacks of all trade. Whilst North Korea is half a world away, and KJU hasn't specifically threatened the UK mainland - yet, that half the world away shrinks somewhat if you lob an ICBM over the Pole. Even if we were to rely on US interceptors in Alaska to cover off the Polar route, that is but one threat. I can imagine Iran will be watching how this plays out very carefully and who's to say that other threats won't emerge in the coming years. Those who were until recently touting Afghanistan as 'the war rather than a war', were I fear sucked into what in reality was a low level policing action; there are far greater potential existential threats out there. Are we match fit AD wise across the full spectrum of threats? (a hypothetical question rather than asking for specific detail).