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U.K. Opens Debate on Replacing Trident
The United Kingdom has begun formal debate on replacing its aging Trident nuclear arsenal, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, March 13). Michael Quinlan, a former defense official, told the House of Commons Defense Committee that London cannot afford to maintain a large arsenal. “My own view is that there will be some cost that will be simply too much to pay for the insurance of staying in this business,” Quinlan said. He said London should consider reducing its arsenal, but stopped short of advocating all-out disarmament. “To leave the French as the only people with (a nuclear deterrent, out of Britain and France), I think, would twitch a lot of very fundamental historical nerves,” he said. “I am not arguing about the logic of it. I just think there will be that gut feeling that we can’t.” Lee Willett of the Royal United Services Institute warned against giving up nuclear weapons. “We do not know what the future will hold. While others have nuclear weapons, the only thing that will deter a nuclear weapon is a nuclear weapon,” he said. Rebecca Johnson, director of the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy, disagreed. “If you believe in [nuclear deterrence], then it gives you a bit of reassurance until it gets tested and it fails, at which point it is far too late to discover that it wasn’t actually helping you at all,” she said. The United Kingdom deploys four Trident submarines that each carry 16 missiles with multiple warheads, AFP reported. A decision on replacing the Trident is expected by 2010 (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, March 14). The British Defense Ministry has refused to appear before the parliamentary inquiry, the London Guardian reported today. “Work is at a very early stage at official level, ministers are not engaged,” the ministry said (Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian, March 15). Meanwhile, the British Atomic Weapons Establishment has plans to hire an additional 1,000 scientists and engineers, raising concerns that preparations for a Trident replacement are already under way, the London Independent reported today. The agency is also planning to build a laser for testing nuclear weapons without actual nuclear detonations, British lawmakers have learned from a Defense Ministry document. Defense Secretary John Reid denied that London has finalized a decision on replacing the Trident. The extra staff would replace retiring technicians, but the move would also boost the total work force, the document says. “This additional investment at AWE is required to sustain the existing warhead stockpile in-service irrespective of decisions on any successor warhead,” it adds. Some members of Parliament, however, believe Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government has already made a decision to modernize the arsenal. “The government have a good idea where they are going,” Michael Hancock, a Liberal Democrat member of the Commons defense committee. “Blair knows that, at the moment, he could not get this through his own party” (Colin Brown, The Independent, March 15).
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