Joint Advanced War Fighting School

Boom or Bust Joint Advanced War Fighting School

Britain's submarine launched nuclear deterrent is due to go out of service by 2025. The final decision to procure and replace it with a new system has been delayed until 2016, the latest decision deadline the procurement timeline will allow. The decision to replace the British deterrent is beset with challenging questions. Britain has over one trillion pounds of national debt. The Ministry of Defense needs to make severe cuts to its already shrinking budget. The 2016 decision to replace the deterrent submarines will cost a 25 billion pound sum that is currently unallocated. The Conservative and Liberal parties within Britain's coalition government have opposing views on nuclear weapons. Contemporary global threats are ambiguous with regards to the relevance of nuclear weapons. Finally, Britain's only nuclear submarine base in Scotland is in jeopardy from an anti-nuclear Scottish regional government that is making great strides towards a 2014 referendum on Scottish independence. The debate on replacing Britain's nuclear deterrent is a difficult and uncomfortable problem that the coalition government does not wish to confront in the current parliamentary term. The work of this book is that Britain must take a positive decision by 2016 to continue Britain's nuclear deterrent if it is to guarantee national security into the middle of this century.