Do we need an Independant Nuclear Deterrant?

[GOLF_BRAVO_ZULU]

Jabba. “Boomers”, eh. I’m impressed already.

OK, I’ll start off by agreeing with you. If some non specific terr bangs off a dirty HE bomb, no nuclear deterrent, anywhere, is going to deter it nor counter it.

If, on the other hand, some beastly foreign state commences to lob “nukes” at us, the UK Independent Nuclear Deterrent will have failed. We cannot measure its success or usefulness on the simple measure of whether we’ve used it or not.

Around 20 years ago, I also believed that cruise missiles/stand-off bombs were the most flexible and inexpensive means of mushroom cloud delivery. I then joined the Polaris/Trident mafia at a secret naval base, somewhere in Somerset and completed the Trident technical appreciation course. I changed my mind. I would now suggest that we would need a lot of cruise missiles to assure the same number of bangs on target. Additionally, having the SSN force (or skimmers, for that matter) sneaking around with nuclear weapons on board would significantly limit fulfilment their prime function.

Incidentally;
http://www.pprune.org/military-aircrew/402812-dannatt-hints-end-nuclear-deterrent.html?highlight=nuclear+deterrent http://www.pprune.org/military-aircrew/391806-nuclear-deterrent.html?highlight=nuclear+deterrent http://www.pprune.org/military-aircrew/358380-tridenthttp://www.pprune.org/military-aircrew/254861-nuclear-trident-replacement-do-we-need-one.html?highlight=nuclear+deterrent-yes-no.html?highlight=nuclear+deterrent