Barbarossa. Pearl Harbor. Swindon? Surprise attacks can, in a moment, change the course of history, the destiny of a nation and the future of a leader. After it was revealed this weekend that the Iranians have developed missiles capable of reaching the United Kingdom – and reportedly attempted to hit the UK-US military base on the Chagos islands – we should be more worried than ever about the possibility of a British Pearl Harbor style attack.

Imagine the scenario: a single conventionally armed ballistic missile is detected launching over a thousand miles away from Russia or Iran – target: the United Kingdom. There is little that Starmer can do to stop it. The nation that built the world’s first integrated air defence system no longer has one – successive prime ministers have been happy to rely on the American military to defend our homeland instead. Of the two missiles fired at the Chagos islands, one is reported to have failed and the other intercepted by the Americans. In our scenario, approximately ten minutes after being alerted to the missile, it hits a new drone factory in Swindon, one of two such sites operating in the UK, knocking out a key military technology. Certainly, this scenario may sound unbelievable, but that’s the thing about surprise attacks – they are unbelievable, until they are suddenly, and bloodily, not. 

On 22 June 1941, Adolf Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the Soviet........

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