What has happened with UK’s nuclear Polaris missiles?

Faslane and Coulport nuclear weapons maintenance to be privatised – Polaris? For Argyll.com July 28, 2012 The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has made a contractual commitment to hand over to a private sector consortium the maintenance of the UK’s nuclear weapons – described by the BBC as ‘Trident and Polaris weapons systems’ – held in Argyll at Faslane and Coulport on the Clyde.

This raises an immediate public information issue.

What is our position on the Polaris system? It was quite a shock to see it mentioned, like a rising from almost forgotten history. Polaris – and are we storing redundant warheads?

The Polaris missile system was a two-stage solid-fuel nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). It was built by Lockheeds in America during the Cold War and was carried by the four purpose built Resolution class submarines.

Resolution, Repulse, Renown and Revenge were built between 1964 and 1968 and were based at Faslane.

They carried the UK’s Polaris nuclear deterrent from the end of the 1960s until 1994. At this point it was replaced by the Trident II system carried in the Vanguard class submarines.

During the 1980s, the USA scrapped and replaced its own Polaris missile systems with the Trident I system. he UK hung on to Polaris for far longer, to the point where the American manufacturing plants had gone over first to building the Poseidon system and later to Trident – and spares for Polaris system were virtually non-existent.

Both the Polaris missile system and the Resolution submarines had gone out of operational use in the UK by 1996, with the last two of the four submarines, Renown and Repulse, decommissioned in that year. Britain’s Polaris era ended in a ceremony at Faslane on 28th August 1996 at mark the decommissioning of the last of them, Repulse.

The news today raises the question about what happened to their missiles?

Privatising missile ‘maintenance’ – now to be contracted out into the private sector – at Faslane and Coulport, would suggest that these, now 16 year old redundant warheads, must be stored in one of those two bases.

Whatever the Scottish government finally decides to do in relation to the Trident submarines operating out of Faslane, it must require the UK government to move redundant warheads out of Scotland.

Should they be said to be in too dangerous a condition to be moved – like the hulks of earlier nuclear powered submarines lying at Rosyth – we would be entitled to inquire about the calibre of maintenance which has applied since they were taken out of service.

In terms of the privatisation contract itself, which the MoD has signed – given that it relates to Faslane and Coulport, did the MoD consult the Scottish government on the matter before going ahead? It would be diplomatically indelicate if it had not, knowing the Scottish Government’s position on nuclear weapons on Scottish soil…… http://forargyll.com/2012/07/faslane-and-coulport-nuclear-weapons-maintenance-to-be-privatised-polaris/