So much of our intelligence and military systems are shared or reliant on the US – if it becomes the enemy, it is already inside the gates, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
The “functionality is entirely reliant on the US”. I.e. in order for Trident to function we need missiles from the US to carry the atomic warheads and we need to spend money every few years to replace old and out of date missiles. If the US decided to stop selling us the missiles Trident would cease to function. Ergo they have outsized control over our nuclear deterrent.
If we wanted to launch the missiles today we could. So in your mind the plan on the part of the US is to wait about 20 years until the missiles don’t work and then invade?
https://www.ft.com/content/762cd291-2a62-4e00-b69f-c60f9ee31a6e?sharetype=blocked
The “functionality is entirely reliant on the US”. I.e. in order for Trident to function we need missiles from the US to carry the atomic warheads and we need to spend money every few years to replace old and out of date missiles. If the US decided to stop selling us the missiles Trident would cease to function. Ergo they have outsized control over our nuclear deterrent.
If we wanted to launch the missiles today we could. So in your mind the plan on the part of the US is to wait about 20 years until the missiles don’t work and then invade?
Long term due to maintenance…sure
…but today we have all we need to launch a strike.
Also if it really mattered I’m sure the UK could work out how to do much if the required maintenance themselves. It’s not exotic tech at this point.