Originally Posted by
Asturias56
There are a lot of people at both Aldermaston and Burghfield - and they have to be kept employed if we intend to maintain a deterrent - think of it as an unavoidable overhead.
Attending a presentation at a U.S. nuclear facility back in the 90s, one of the most vexing problems was how to attract and retain technical expertise when nothing new was being developed (U.S. “Stockpile Stewardship”)
Another problem is that there are certain modern safety features than cannot be retrofitted to existing warheads.