AN American defence magazine has warned that the UK’s nuclear submarine force is showing “dangerous signs of decline”.
In an article published by The National Interest written by former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst Brandon Weichert, he states that the Royal Navy’s “nightmare” with its Trident nuclear-powered submarines has just begun.
Describing the Trident missiles as “legendary mass killing machines,” Weichert claimed that the UK Government was “struggling to maintain a reliable fighting force”.
“Britain is also struggling with an identity crisis,” he wrote.
“Britain is struggling, like so many other Western nations, to maintain a reliable fighting force.
“This is partly because of limits of resources and bad leadership. It’s also because Britain is much smaller than other countries and is inherently limited.”
He then describes how the UK is facing problems in maintaining the ageing vessels.
“The Royal Navy is invested in building the Dreadnought-class SSBN as a replacement for the Vanguard class,” he said.
“But the first vessel in the class, HMS Dreadnought, is not expected to enter service until the 2030s, meaning Vanguard-class subs will need to remain operational for several more years, probably longer than their designers ever intended.”
Weichert concluded that the “elite in London’s government” had no coherent plan for the UK’s nuclear arsenal.
“If British leaders had a cogent vision for what they wanted British military power to achieve, they would find a way to build submarines in greater numbers, which is what they need,” he wrote.
“But British leadership still thinks they’re running an empire.
“The elite in London’s government clearly believe that their military can do everything, everywhere, all at once. But, they are wrong.
“And Britain’s submarine force is showing dangerous signs of decline as a result of this faulty thinking.”
It comes after a former SNP MP warned that failures to address concerns about the state of the UK’s nuclear fleet was putting Scottish lives “at risk”.
