英国反对党领袖、保守党党魁凯米·巴德诺克淡化了此前关于斥资100亿英镑（约合132亿美元）建设防空计划将打造英国版“铁穹”的说法，此举是在该提案遭到质疑后作出的回应。
By Chloe Chaplain UK opposition leader Kemi Badenoch downplayed initial claims her plans for a £10 billion ($13.2 billion) air defense program would amount to a British “iron dome” after the proposal came under scrutiny.
保守党最初推出这项名为“不列颠之盾”的政策，将其定位为英国版以色列防空系统，旨在拦截来袭的导弹、火箭弹、迫击炮弹和无人机。但当被问及这笔资金是否足以支撑该政策时，巴德诺克表示，“盾牌”将专注于保护关键基础设施免受无人机袭击，而非保卫全国领土。
The Conservative Party initially pitched the policy, dubbed the “Britannia Shield” as a UK version of Israel’s air defense system, designed to shoot down incoming missiles, rockets, mortars and drones. But asked whether the funding would be enough to deliver such a policy, Badenoch said the shield would be focused on protecting critical infrastructure from drone attacks, rather than defending the whole country.
巴德诺克周二接受BBC广播采访时表示：“我们面临的威胁不同，但目前我们不具备这种能力。例如，可能出现有人极度逼近英吉利海峡，并能向我们的关键国家基础设施发射无人机和导弹的情况。我们如何保护自己免受此类威胁？这就是我们今天宣布的内容。”巴德诺克还表示，该系统还可用于保护英国的海外利益，如福克兰群岛和英国在塞浦路斯的空军基地。
“The threats that we face are different, but at the moment we don’t have this sort of capability,” Badenoch told BBC radio on Tuesday. “We could have a situation, for example, people coming very close to the English Channel and are able to send drones and missiles at our critical national infrastructure. How do we protect ourselves from this? And that is what we have announced today.”Badenoch said the system could be used to protect British overseas interests too, such as the Falkland Islands and the country’s air bases in Cyprus.
在伯明翰举行的保守党年会第三天宣布这一承诺时，这位托利党领袖承诺到2030年将国防开支提高至国内生产总值的3%，她的党称这将每年额外提供100亿英镑资金。党内官员表示，防空系统将作为这项预先存在的资金承诺的一部分，在10年内每年耗资约10亿英镑，资金将通过削减福利开支来筹措。
Announcing the pledge on the third day of the party’s annual conference in Birmingham, the Tory leader pledged to spend 3% of gross domestic product on defense by 2030 which her party said would provide an additional £10 billion a year. Party officials said the air defense system would account for around £1 billion annually over 10 years as part of this pre-existing funding promise, which they said would be paid for through welfare spending cuts.
剑桥航空航天公司创始人兼首席执行官斯蒂芬·巴雷特教授表示，10年内投入100亿英镑资金将是保卫关键国家基础设施的“重大支出承诺”，但他指出这远不足以保护平民。
Professor Stephen Barrett, founder and CEO of Cambridge Aerospace, said £10 billion in funding over 10 years would be a “significant spending commitment” toward defending critical national infrastructure, but suggested it would not go so far as to protect civilians.
他告诉英国广播公司：“当我们开始保卫民众时，需要考虑的一件重要的事情是，我们不是在谈论保卫英国的每一平方英寸领土。”他将该系统与手机桅杆进行了比较。“通过战略性地部署防御，你可以用更有限的拦截站和雷达站覆盖关键高密度地区的非常大一部分人口，而不是真正试图覆盖整个领土。”
“Something that’s important to think about when it comes to if we move to defending the population is that we’re not talking about defending every square inch of UK territory,” he told the BBC, comparing the system to mobile phone masts. “By placing the defenses strategically you could cover very significant parts of the population in key high density areas with a more limited set of interceptor sites and radar sites than if you really tried to cover the the whole territory.”