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UK government’s secret decisions on nuclear warheads

the debate remains stifled. Trident was excluded from last year’s strategic defence and security review. As part of the coalition agreement, the Lib Dems were offered a Trident “value for money” review. It is little more than a fig leaf…..

Britain, meanwhile, is also collaborating with the US on plans to replace nuclear warhead components.

How many ministers are questioning the plan to replace Trident? Guardian UK,  Richard Norton-Taylor,  31 Dec 11, Two-thirds of Thatcher’s cabinet were reportedly against buying Trident. Thirty years on, debate about its replacement is stifled. In 1981, two-thirds of the cabinet were opposed to Britain buying the US Trident nuclear missile system, according to the defence secretary at the time, John Nott.

The prime minister went ahead anyway, without any proper debate.

Disclosures in hitherto secret papers released at the National Archives under the 30-year rule are extraordinarily pertinent now. Despite Nott’s claim about the prevailing view in Thatcher’s government 30 years ago, the government built a four-boat Trident submarine fleet, designed and assembled new warheads, and leased the missiles from the US.

Today, we do not know how many ministers are questioning the plan to replace the existing Trident system. We may have to wait for 30 more years to find out. It is known that senior members of the armed forces have serious doubts about the wisdom of investing tens of billions in a new nuclear weapons system that is widely regarded as irrelevant to the immediate interests and pressing needs of Britain’s armed forces. Whenever they are asked about Trident, they dodge the question, saying it is a “political” matter.

Even Tony Blair, in his autobiography, A Journey, described Trident’s purpose as “non-existent in terms of military use“, remarking: “Its expense is huge.” In 1981, the government was advised by Ministry of Defence experts that the initial cost of acquiring Trident would be £5bn. It cost twice as much.

Earlier this year, the MoD quietly acknowledged that the cost of a new fleet of Trident nuclear missile submarines – excluding the the missiles and warheads that would go on them – would amount to £25bn by the time they were built. That is more than double the existing estimates….

the debate remains stifled. Trident was excluded from last year’s strategic defence and security review. As part of the coalition agreement, the Lib Dems were offered a Trident “value for money” review. It is little more than a fig leaf…..

Britain, meanwhile, is also collaborating with the US on plans to replace nuclear warhead components. Corbyn asked the government whether Britain was “walking – indeed, sleepwalking – into a massive expenditure” on Trident. There are many in Whitehall asking the same question, albeit very quietly.http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/30/trident-thatcher-ministers-against

December 31, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | secrets,lies and civil liberties, UK