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By Hans M. Kristensen Britain’s disclosure last year of the size of its nuclear weapons stockpile shows, when combined with official information released earlier, that its Cold War nuclear stockpile was bigger than previously thought – more than 500 nuclear warheads in the 1970s.
New Nuclear Notebook: British Nuclear Forces 2011 » FAS Strategic Security Blog
British Submarines to Receive Upgraded US Nuclear Warhead » FAS Strategic Security Blog
By Hans M. Kristensen Sea-launched ballistic missiles on British ballistic missile submarines will be armed with the upgraded W76-1 nuclear warhead currently in production in the United States, according to a report from Sandia National Laboratories. According to the Labs Accomplishments from March 2011, “the first W76-1 United Kingdom trials test was performed at WETL [Weapon Evaluation Test Laboratory], providing qualification data critical to the UK implementation of the W76-1.” Rumors have long existed that the nuclear warhead currently used on British sea-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) is very similar to the U.S.
UK to continue aid to India, terminates aid to 16 other nations
From ANI London, Feb.28: Britain will continue providing financial aid to India, but will cut off aid to sixteen other nations, following a review, that proves they are no longer in the poverty bracket. Following an inquiry ordered by International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell, countries such as Russia, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Moldova and Serbia will not be provided financial aid by UK, the Daily Mail reports.
Le 21 octobre est un jour de fête au Royaume Uni, où l'on commémore la victoire de la Royal Navy à Trafalgar. Las ! Cette année, les héritiers de Nelson ne se seront pas réjouis longtemps.
Secret Défense: Un sous-marin nucléaire d'attaque britannique s'échoue en Ecosse
Generals add their fire to Clegg’s attack on Trident - Times Onl
Britain’s biggest teaching unions have set a collision course with the Government after voting for further industrial action including strikes which could hit schools this summer. The National Union of Teachers will seek a one-day national strike before the end of June, while the NASUWT agreed that intensifying its own campaign was “essential” in the face of a “vicious and unjustified assault on teachers”. Continued industrial action was “the best means of protecting and safeguarding the interests of teachers and state education until the next general election,” said the NASUWT. Their vote raises the prospect of strikes in the autumn term. Both unions are protesting at changes to teachers’ pensions which they say will see their members paying more, working longer and receiving less.Secret files from 70s reveal Trident strike needed 'to kill 10m Russians' | UK news | The Guardian
Models of the Polaris A3 (left) and Poseidon missiles. In 1978, Michael Quinlan wrote in a secret memo that ‘it is far from clear that [Russia] would regard less than half of 1% of its population as an unthinkable price’. Photograph: Alan Band/Fox/Getty The British government opted for the Trident nuclear weapons system because it estimated it could kill up to 10 million Russians and inflict "unacceptable damage" on the former Soviet Union, according to secret Whitehall documents written in the 1970s. The macabre calculations that underpinned the decision in 1980 to replace Polaris nuclear missiles with Trident have been revealed by a Ministry of Defence memo, marked "personal and top secret".
What the UK defence cuts mean for us
Prime Minister David Cameron has announced some pretty savage cuts to the UK defence budget overnight. The Guardian has collected the documentation here , and here's the BBC's summary of the major points. Some implications for Australia and the Asia Pacific region come to mind: Britain's ability to undertake large-scale ground-force interventions will be reduced . In turn, that means the chances of coalition military operations on the scale of the Iraq war have declined.
Britain emerged as a world power in the years after its defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. By 1815, following the defeat of Napoleon, it had become the most powerful nation in the world. Then came World War I and World War II—both conflicts for which Britain was not well-prepared. It's been downhill ever since. In the three decades after 1945, Britain shed virtually all of the colonies that had taken centuries to acquire.
Britain Bows Out of the Security Game - Council on Foreign Relations
Justin Jones is Navy Fellow at the Lowy Institute and maritime adviser to the MacArthur Foundation Lowy Institute Asia Security Project. Sam posted earlier regarding the results of the UK defence review. Here are some additional thoughts and potential implications for Australia and the region.
UK defence cuts: Belgium, with nukes
Enemy – thy name is debt!
While yesterday's announcement by the UK and France to enter into one of their closest peacetime relationships for over a century had some analysts gaping, others might see a logical progression from preceding months and years. The 1904 Entente Cordiale – or 'amicable understanding' – saw similar multilevel undertakings for cooperation between what were then the two undisputed world maritime powers, covering borders, basing, fleet movements and foreign policy harmonisation. But this — and the ensuing Triple Entente that included Russia — was a deliberate manoeuvre to outfox Imperial Germany (see cartoon at left of John Bull and Marianne turning their backs on the Kaiser). Whither such a shared enemy today, if not the size of each country's national debt? France's formal re-entry to NATO last year demonstrated France's clear recognition that it again saw itself among like-minded nations with similar threats and challenges, but also with similar defence capability needs and requirements.
(A LONDRES) Selon une enquête réalisée par le RUSI parmi la communauté des experts britanniques de la défense, de stratégie et de politique étrangère (1) - qui vient d'être publiée aujourd'hui - le Royaume-Uni a besoin d'une « réévaluation radicale de la position s'il veut être capable de jouer un rôle dans le monde ». Une écrasante majorité (88% des réponses, 7% seulement en désaccord) approuve cette assertion. Sur les autres questions, le propos est cependant un peu plus partagé, même si une nette majorité se dégage pour approuver certains "fondamentaux". • Les opérations courantes en Afghanistan jouent un rôle intrinsèque dans le maintien de la sécurité du Royaume-Uni : 57% pour, 34% contre. • Les bénéfices politiques et de sécurité du dispositif Trident (sous-marins nucléaires) l'emportent clairement sur ses coûts économiques et diplomatiques : 53% pour, 34% contre.
La défense britannique doit changer radicalement (sondage) - bru
C'est la plus grande perte que l'armée britannique ait connue depuis des années. Le plan que concocte le gouvernement de coalition (libéral-conservateur) visant à redresser les comptes publics (155 milliards £ de déficit) va infliger aux forces armées britanniques plus qu'une sévère correction, une radicale cure d'amaigrissement. On n'est plus ici dans le domaine de petites mesures conjoncturelles. Il s'agit d'opérer un véritable changement de focus stratégique. Douloureuse facture à éponger
L'armée britannique se prépare à une sacrée raclée - bruxelles2 Europe de la Défense
Fr-Uk agt. on nuclear warhead maintenance
Nick Floyd is surely right that there are historical antecedents to the recently announced UK-French defence treaty. Still, the sharing of nuclear-weapons technology is pretty remarkable, given that British nuclear weapons are actually aimed at France...
What British nukes are really for
WASHINGTON -- The United Kingdom has no intention of eliminating its nuclear deterrent, despite recently announced plans to push back the system's modernization and to reduce the number of warheads, a senior British government official said here yesterday (see GSN , Oct. 20). "We will remain in the nuclear club," Pauline Neville-Jones, minister of state for security, said during an event at the Brookings Institution. "We do not believe that it makes a great deal of sense, in that we have a nuclear deterrent, to decide that we're ... going to dispense with it," she told the audience. Last week, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced the government would postpone until 2016 a final decision on replacing its four Vanguard-class submarines with an equal number of nuclear-capable vessels (see GSN , Oct. 19). The news came the same day the Conservative Party-led administration released its Strategic Defense and Security Review, a comprehensive analysis of the country's defense spending.