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March 15, 2006
The 1940 test
The UK House of Commons defence committee ponders a replacement for the Trident weapon system, scheduled to be decommissioned around 2020. An important consideration is the cost/necessity of developing a British alternative to Trident.
"The public understanding is that we have this if ever again we face 1940," said Mr Plesch, referring to the UK going to war with Germany without US backing. ... There's a strong sense, going back almost to the Armada and Trafalgar in our culture that we have to have some contingency."
While the United Kingdom's nuclear deterrent consists of warheads designed and built by the Atomic Weapons Establishment and deployed aboard British Vanguard-class SSBN submarines, the Trident missiles themselves are supplied by Lockheed and delivered direct to these submarines at an American naval base. A desire for an entirely independent nuclear deterrent on the part of the UK defence establishment would seem to echo the earlier shift from the Westinghouse designed PWR1 reactor to the British designed and built Core H PWR2 reactor (and a jolly reactor it is, too).
Posted by Ghost of a flea at March 15, 2006 10:51 AM
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