A quiet East Lancashire village could be targeted by missiles if war broke out between the UK and Russia, a senior politician has warned.
Dmitry Rogozin, a Russian senator and former deputy prime minister, revealed a number of locations across the country that would be top of Vladimir Putin’s target list if war broke out.
Among them is the historic village of Samlesbury, mainly due to it being the home of a major BAE Systems factory building fighter jets.
Fellow Lancashire village Warton, which is also home to a BAE site, is included in the map unveiled by Rogozin.
The two Lancashire sites play a major role in the final assembly of Eurofighter Typhoon jets, which are supplied to the UK military and to allies across Europe and the Middle East.
The sites employ thousands of people in highly-skilled roles, generating billions of pounds for the UK economy.
The locations listed are based on the UK Government’s 2025 Defence Industrial Strategy, which outlines key military sites and infrastructure across the country.
How bad would a nuclear blast in Samlesbury be?
If a strike did occur and the Russians used a Topol SS025 800-kiloton missile, which they currently have in their arsenal, the site, plus Balderstone, would be in the fireball radius and vaporised, based on surface calculations from nuclearsecrecy.com.
Roughly 11,000 people would be killed and 110,000 injured.
Heavy blast damage would destroy Mellor Brook, with an almost 100 per cent fatality rate, with the radiation radius reaching Osbaldeston, killing almost everyone there within a month.
The moderate blast radius would reach Samlesbury village itself, plus parts of Beardwood, Ramsgreave, Clayton-le-Dale and Westholme School. Houses would be destroyed with a high risk of fires starting, causing widespread deaths and universal injuries.
The thermal radiation radius would cover all of Blackburn, Longridge, Preston and much of Darwen, along with villages in the south of the Ribble Valley, where people would suffer deep third-degree burns causing severe scarring and likely leading to amputation and disability. It would be painless, as the burns would destroy nerve endings.
Light damage to buildings would also be seen in Darwen, Rishton, Great Harwood, and as far north as Chipping.
The list published by Rogozin also includes nearby Bolton, where weapons manufacturer MBDA has a site, and Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria, which also hosts a BAE site.
Three sites apiece are in Scotland and Wales, two are in Northern Ireland, with the rest spread across England, mainly in the south.
Rogozin, who used to head up Russia’s space agency, warned the UK could become “deadly dangerous” and urged Russians not to send their children to school or university in the UK.
UK defence officials have not commented on the claims made by Rogozin.
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