From Sir Humphrey….
…..”The realisation that Polaris was going to cease to have any credible deterrent value within a few years meant that when faced with the need to spend a huge amount of money on staying credible, a withdrawal into investing in conventional force enhancements made sense. For financial and technical reasons, the UK possibly came closer to nuclear disarmament in the mid 1970s than we have previously realised was the case.
It is fascinating to consider in hindsight what this means – essentially at one of the most challenging parts of the Cold War, and at a time when difficult decisions were being taken on nuclear rearmament, the Royal Navy was operating a missile system it didn’t want, which could not deliver the mission it was intended to do, and which meant that the UK strategic nuclear deterrent was arguably not worth the paper it was written on, if called on to deliver its ultimate mission.”…….