Trident nuclear submarine program a political minefield for UK’s coalition govt

Coalition faces split over Trident nuclear replacement As defence secretary confirms £1bn contract for plant, Lib Dems confirm campaign for alternative to Tory plans for 2016 Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent guardian.co.uk, 17 June 2012 A replacement for Britain’s Trident nuclear deterrent will become highly contentious at the next general election after the Liberal Democrats confirmed that they will campaign for an alternative and the SNP rejected the presence of “weapons of mass destruction in our waters”.

The divisions were highlighted on Sunday when Philip Hammond, the
defence secretary, confirmed a £1bn contract to refurbish the
Rolls-Royce plant in Derby to build reactors for the next generation
of nuclear submarines. The plant will build two reactors – one to
power the replacement for the Vanguard submarines, which carry the
Trident deterrent, and a second to power the Astute-class attack
submarines.

The announcement is consistent with the coalition agreement in which
the Tories and the Lib Dems disagreed over a replacement for Britain’s
nuclear deterrent. The Tories are committed to maintaining the
“continuous-at-sea deterrent” (CASD) in which at least one of
Britain’s four submarines carrying ballistic missiles is able to
launch a strike at any time.

The Lib Dems support a nuclear deterrent. But the coalition agreement
allowed the Lib Dems to examine alternatives to what they dub the
“Moscow” option which allows Britain to launch a nuclear strike at the
Russian capital at any time on any day or night of the year.
The coalition partners have agreed to delay the so-called “maingate”
decision – the irreversible decision to replace the continuous
deterrent – until 2016, a year after the election…..
The difference between the Tories and the Lib Dems means that the
coalition partners are likely to go into the next election with
different pledges on the nuclear deterrent.

The SNP rejects the nuclear deterrent outright. Angus Robertson, the
SNP’s defence spokesman, said: “People in Scotland do not want
Trident. Church leaders, the Scottish Trades Union Council, the
Scottish government and Scotland’s parliament are all against weapons
of mass destruction being in our waters.

“Despite this the UK government is prepared to spend £1bn of
taxpayers’ money on a needless programme and then expect the people of
Scotland to accept weapons of mass destruction being dumped here. What
Scotland needs is a government close to home making decisions based on
what the people of Scotland actually wants. Only an independent
Scotland can deliver this.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/17/coalition-split-trident-nuclear-submarines-replacement?newsfeed=true