Thanks for your response WEBF. Unfortunately, your one-liner style questions would require degree thesis answers and, I rather thought you would understand those issues before adopting your opinion?
However, a point about the possible tactical-use of nuclear weapons (note, I did not say anything about "tactical ballistic missiles"- your simplistic mis-quote old chap
) and this particular target is that, they could be targeted at sea where the possibility exists for their elimination without civilian casualties, with no collateral damage and with a high degree of ambiguity if done in certain ways.
Beyond that, they will always be huge soft targets in port for a satchel bag nuke in these days of asymmetric and suicide terrorist warfare. Hey, even drug cartels have mini-subs!
Overall, my opinion is that they are the wrong ships for the RN.
OAP