{"id":7275,"date":"2018-01-27T19:21:33","date_gmt":"2018-01-27T19:21:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/?p=7275"},"modified":"2018-01-27T21:25:49","modified_gmt":"2018-01-27T21:25:49","slug":"uk-to-launch-new-radar-against-severe-russian-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/uk-to-launch-new-radar-against-severe-russian-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"UK to launch new radar against \u2018severe\u2019 Russian threat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-7276\" src=\"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/UK.jpg\" alt=\"UK\" width=\"290\" height=\"174\" \/>Britain\u2019s Defense Minister Gavin Williamson said a new radar off Scotland\u2019s Shetland Islands would help tackle the \u201csevere and real\u201d threat from Moscow.<br \/>\nIn a return to the Cold War days when Shetland had hosted an early warning radar, the new Royal Air Force facility is being built to track unidentified military or civilian aircraft.<br \/>\n\u201cWe will always protect our skies from Russian aggression,\u201d Williamson said Friday, describing the radar as vital to British defenses.<br \/>\n\u201cRussia\u2019s actions are not limited to Europe\u2019s eastern borders \u2014 the threat to British livelihoods is severe and real,\u201d he added.<br \/>\nThe \u00a310 million ($14.1 million) radar on Unst, Britain\u2019s most northerly inhabited island, is due to be fully operational soon, the Ministry of Defense said.<br \/>\nOnce launched it will feed into the country\u2019s quick reaction alert system, which in the past has been used to scramble RAF jets to intercept Russian aircraft.<br \/>\nOn Jan. 15 two fighter jets were launched to monitor two Russian military aircraft, which the Ministry of Defense said did not respond to air traffic control authorities.<br \/>\nA total of 69 such operations have been carried out in the past five years, the ministry said without detailing how many involved Russian aircraft.<br \/>\nWilliamson\u2019s praise for the radar comes as he and defense chiefs up their rhetoric against Russia.<br \/>\nOn Thursday the defense minister accused Moscow of spying on Britain\u2019s crucial infrastructure, as part of possible plans to create \u201ctotal chaos\u201d in the country, in comments published in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.<br \/>\nHis intervention came after the head of the British army warned Russia poses the \u201cmost complex and capable\u201d security challenge since the Cold War.<br \/>\nChief of the General Staff Nick Carter warned Monday that Britain struggled to match Russia\u2019s military capabilities, saying the ability to respond to threats would be eroded \u201cif we don\u2019t match up to them now.\u201d<br \/>\nThe comments come as Williamson, in the post since November, is reportedly pressuring Finance Minister Philip Hammond for more money.<\/p>\n<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\r\n<script>(function(d, s, id) {\r\n  var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\r\n  if (d.getElementById(id)) return;\r\n  js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\r\n  js.src = \"\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_GB\/all.js#xfbml=1\";\r\n  fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\r\n}(document, \"script\", \"facebook-jssdk\"));<\/script>\r\n <fb:comments href=\"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/uk-to-launch-new-radar-against-severe-russian-threat\/\" font=\"arial\" num_posts=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" colorscheme=\"light\"  style=\"background:#FFFFFF;padding-top:0px;\r\npadding-right:0px;\r\npadding-bottom:0px;\r\npadding-left:0px;\r\nmargin-top:0px;\r\nmargin-right:0px;\r\nmargin-bottom:0px;\r\nmargin-left:0px;\r\n\"><\/fb:comments>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Britain\u2019s Defense Minister Gavin Williamson said a new radar off Scotland\u2019s Shetland Islands would help tackle the \u201csevere and real\u201d threat from Moscow. In a return to the Cold War days when Shetland had hosted an early warning radar, the new Royal Air Force facility is being built to track unidentified military or civilian aircraft. &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,9],"tags":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7275"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7275"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7277,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7275\/revisions\/7277"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}