British Nuclear Weapons Program

[Frank_Carbonni]

Originally Posted by twojciac

Only the people we disagree with shouldn't be able to develop nukes... haven't you been paying attention? It's the good guys vs the bad guys... like cops and robbers when you were a kid. We're the good guys.. we don't do things like overthrow governments.

I agree. There is absolutely no moral or security reasons why America shouldn't care if a close ally has nuclear weapons or an openly hostile country that is aggressive towards its neighbors, funds terrorist groups, and has laws that would have been considered barbaric in the Dark Ages.

[texdav]

I see no problem. I will always want our ally to be stronger than the enemy.Europe has for too long depended on the USA to pay for the defense of the west. I also think we should keep working on a missle defense as fast as possible.

[TonyT]

In April 1940, a committee code named MAUD was formed by the British government to study the viability of nuclear material for use as a weapon. Their conclusion was that fission weapons were indeed workable. This information was passed on to the U.S. government and was the basis of later British assistance on the Manhattan Project.

The sharing of nuclear technology and information between Britain and the United States ended in 1946 when the McMahon Act was passed. The McMahon Act forbade virtually all sharing of nuclear information between the United States and other countries. The British government particularly felt betrayed by this action and decided to become a nuclear power in their own right. This became a reality in 1952 with Operation Hurricane, the successful detonation of a nuclear device off the Australian coast.

From this point forward, Britain was completely set on developing a strong nuclear arsenal. The culmination of this came in 1957 with Operation Grapple, which was the detonation of a hydrogen bomb. All of Britain's thermonuclear weapons up to that point were developed with zero assistance from the United States.

Due in large part to heightening Cold War tensions, the McMahon Act received a major revision in 1958 and co-operation between Britain and the United States on nuclear matters began again. In September 1958, a meeting took place in Los Alamos at which the U.S. gave all the design details of current and proposed nuclear weapons to the British. Once the designs were reviewed, the British decided to stop independent development of nuclear weapon systems and instead use those of the United States. Every British nuclear weapon since 1958 has been of or based on U.S. design, but manufactured in Britain. This includes the Trident missile system which is the subject referenced in the original post.

Currently the total inventory of British Trident missiles is 58. The number of submarines on patrol and armed at any given time is 1. The submarine carries 48 warheads. All missiles on the sub have no pre-set targets and are not kept at a readiness state that would allow them to be launched in a matter of minutes, but more like days. The missiles themselves do not actually belong to Britain but are part of an inventory of missiles controlled and managed by the United States government, and stored on U.S. soil. Britain's "Atomic Weapon Establishment" which is responsible for weapons design is presently managed by a consortium made up of British Nuclear Fuels, Lockheed-Martin, and Serco Limited.

Given the circumstances, I don't really think Britain deciding to stay a nuclear power with weapons that we own is much of a threat to our security or cause for alarm.

[Bob The Builder]

Okay. I'm an idiot, but I wanted to throw this out in the mix for discussion.

Rowan what's his name, the Archbishop of Canterbury now says that Sharia Law as well as British Common Law should be the law of the land in GB. At least that is what Rowan Williams says Sharia law unavoidable - Telegraph had to say about his comments.

There is a growing Muslim population in GB that appears to be getting bigger and stronger. They seem to have the momo. Sharia + Nukes = Threat?