Prime Minister Tony Blair opted to keep a British nuclear arsenal well into the 21st century on Monday, saying the government planned to order new nuclear-armed submarines to replace its existing fleet.
But in a concession to dozens of legislators in his Labour Party who oppose spending billions of pounds on a new nuclear-weapons system, Blair said Britain would cut its nuclear warheads by 20% to less than 160 and may decide to reduce its fleet of submarines to three from four.
”Our review of the available options has demonstrated that a submarine-based system provides the most effective deterrent and that no credible alternative is cheaper,” a government policy document, or White Paper, published on Monday said.
”We have therefore decided to maintain our nuclear deterrent by building a new class of submarines,” it said.
Blair also said the government would extend the life of its United States-made Trident D5 missile.
The decision keeps Britain in a nuclear club comprising all five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — the US, Russia, China, France and Britain.
Blair argued that Britain needed a deterrent as an insurance policy against future unpredictable threats, particularly given a growing risk from so-called ”rogue states”.
North Korea carried out a nuclear test in October and the West accuses Iran of seeking an atomic bomb, although Tehran denies it. India and Pakistan have nuclear weapons and Israel is widely thought to have nuclear arms, but has never confirmed it.
”We cannot be certain in the decades ahead that a major nuclear threat to our strategic interests will not emerge; that there is also a new and potentially hazardous threat from states such as North Korea, which claims already to have developed nuclear weapons, or Iran, which is in breach of its non-proliferation duties,” Blair told Parliament.
”It would be unwise and dangerous for Britain, alone of any of the nuclear powers, to give up its independent nuclear deterrent,” he said.
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and scores of Labour parliamentarians, however, say Britain is contributing to nuclear proliferation. They argue there is no need for a costly deterrent now that the Cold War has ended. — Reuters