The British Trident ‘deterrent’ is a £100 billion bad joke when Israel now has a nuclear-armed, state-of-the-art fleet of five German-built submarines armed with SLCM Cruise missiles that can already blow a British SLBM-armed Trident submarine out of the water at close range.
Israel already has a fleet of five such nuclear-armed naval strike vessels assumed to be now patrolling the Mediterranean, the Gulf and the North Sea, unseen.
Just one Israeli strike vessel armed with SLCM, patrolling Trident’s home port, could incinerate a Royal Navy Vanguard-class submarine armed with a Trident long-range ballistic missile that has no short-range capability, within seconds.
Secretary Michael Fallon, with his 20 year plan for a Trident replacement, knows full well that Britain must now rely on the United States for its nuclear defence, only no Conservative government will admit it.
Britain is a NATO signatory to the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and subject to inspection by the IAEA, whilst Israel is one of the only UN members that refuses to sign either, and is, (together with North Korea and Pakistan), a global nuclear threat that Britain is completely powerless to confront.
A plan to expend £100 billion for a replacement nuclear deterrent that will not be available until 2035, is £100 billion thrown down the drain. Mrs May knows it. The SNP know it and the much-maligned Mr Corbyn has the guts to say that to expend £1600 for every man, woman and child in Britain on a deterrent that is in fact no such thing, is not only political misjudgment but a serious threat to our national security.
It is public money that should be spent on modern hospitals, cancer treatment and Britain’s road, rail and communications infrastructure – not thrown away on a discredited Conservative political doctrine.
