RUSSIAN missiles overwhelmed Britain in a war game based on the war in Ukraine.
Defence chiefs simulated the first night of the war to test the UK’s air defences.
Air Commodore Blythe Crawford said: “It was not a pretty picture.”
The drills suggested bases would be blown to smithereens and £100million fighter jets could get blitzed before they could hide.
Air Cdre Crawford, who ran the RAF’s Air and Space Warfare Centre, said it showed the UK “home base” was no longer safe.
The UK utilized a £36 million wargaming system in drills to evaluate its responses to numerous types of munitions coming from various directions.
These exercises revealed several weaknesses, such as a significant lack of airfields and the absence of fortified shelters to protect and conceal grounded jets.
The government sold off scores of airfields and watered-down the RAF’s powers to commandeer civilian runways.
The UK has no Iron Dome-style air defence system to protect the home nations from incoming missiles.
The Armed Forces rely on RAF Typhoons, which scramble from RAF Lossiemouth, to shoot down incoming drones and cruise missiles.
The only British missiles that could intercept Russian ballistic missiles are based onboard the Royal Navy’s Type 45 destroyers.
Air Cdr Crawford cautioned that Britain had become complacent by positioning itself on the outskirts of Europe and mistakenly believing that the continent acted as a buffer between the UK and potential threats.
He said: “Ukraine has made us all sit up.”
He warned that for decades military planners had assumed they were “safe to operate from the home base because most of the wars we’ve been fighting have been overseas”.
He said: “We need to reverse that thinking and assume that from here on, we’re under threat in the home base now as well.”
His warning comes as the government prepares to unveil a blueprint for the future of UK armed forces.
It is expected to prioritise drones, technology and missile defence.
The test took place on a simulator known as Gladiator after Russia launched its full scale invasion in 2022.
But the results have not been revealed until now.
Addressing an Air and Missile Defence Conference at London-based RUSI think tank, Air Cmdr Crawford said: “We loaded night one of Ukraine into that synthetic environment and played it out against the UK and as you can imagine it was not a pretty picture.
“It reinforced the fact that we really need to get after this.”
The drills were stopped before bases were hit but it triggered an urgent review of the RAF’s resilience.
Since then Typhoon jets have practised landing on ice and motorways in Finland – as they would have to do if their bases were under attack.
Sweden’s Grippen fighter jet and Soviet MiG and Sukhoi jets were designed to land on motorways. They deliberately built their roads to be strong enough – and straight enough – for fighter jets to land.
Speaking before the war in Ukraine, former RAF boss Mike Wigston said pilots needed to practise scrambling at zero notice to prepare for a war with Russia.
He said RAF Typhoons and F-35B Lightning jets would have to land on motorways, race tracks and car parks if they held proper fleet dispersal drills for the first time since the Cold War.
The plans would see squadrons scatter into “fighting fours” to cut the risk whole fleets could be wiped out in a single strike.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston said it was his duty to prepare for a “worst case scenario”.
Speaking in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where the US Pacific fleet was decimated by a surprise attack in 1941, he said: “There is a worst case scenario where things we hold dear, parts of the UK, are within range of Russian missiles.”
He added: “It sounds a bit Cold Warry, but there is a pressing requirement to remember how to do it.”
RAF pilots practised dispersing to Boscombe Down, in Wiltshire.
The former World War Two airfield is used to test prototype aircraft but hasn’t been used by an operational squadron for more than 30 years.
A defence source said having more airfields made it easier to launch deception plans so that enemies are uncertain where the RAF jets are based.
But they warned cost-cutting drives had hamstrung the RAF’s military effectiveness.
The Ministry of Defence said the UK “stands fully prepared to defend itself against any threat alongside our Nato allies”.
A spokesperson said: “Our military is equipped with a range of advanced capabilities to provide a layered approach to air and missile defence.
“This includes the world-class Sea Viper missile system which has successfully shot down a Houthi rebel ballistic missile and attack drones in the Red Sea.”
