Britain Will Debate How Many Nuclear Missile Carrying Submarines It Needs

Well It Certainly Needs Enough to Repel Invasion

As the nature of warfare changes, and not necessarily in a good way or bad way, it is just changing, Britain must determine how many submarines with nuclear weapons it must have.

Britain’s fleet of four Trident submarines could be cut to two vessels under plans to be put to the Liberal Democrat conference this autumn.

William the Conqueror
Never wouild have
invaded Britain if they
had their nuclear subs
in 1066

Danny Alexander, the Liberal Democrat Chief Treasury Secretary, will set out the proposal on Tuesday after heading a review of the alternative options to the £25bn “like-for-like” successor to Trident fleet favoured by the Conservatives.

The two Coalition parties are divided on the need for a full-scale replacement and the Liberal Democrat leadership faces pressure from some activists to support unilateral nuclear disarmament.

Why, a person might ask, does Britain need any nuclear weapons carrying submarines.  Well there is this.

Mr Alexander’s plan, to be spelt out in a speech to the Royal United Services Institute, would end the “continuous at-sea deterrence” offered by the four Trident subs, one of which is always on patrol. In a gesture towards disarmament, the two boats would not necessarily be armed with nuclear weapons unless there was an imminent danger to the UK.

However, the Tories are expected to criticise such an approach claiming that ending round-the-clock deterrence would invite a pre-emptive attack on Britain.

Now exactly what army is going to engage in a pre-emptive attack on Britain is not known at this time, but as soon as the Conservatives who are worried about such a thing know we are sure they will tell the rest of us. 

The last invasion of Britain happened in 1066 with the Normans, and the last major threat was the Spanish Armada sometime in the late 1600’s.  But it is always possible that the Normans and the Spanish will combine to try to invade Britain in 2066 to celebrate the 1,000 year anniversary of the last conquest of the Island nation.  And we are sure the Conservatives will remind everyone that if Britain only had  a submarine or two in 1066 none of those awful foreigners that now inhabit London and the other cities would be there.