This BBC article of June 30, 2014 indicates where the 4 UK Trident SSBNs are located (at Faslane, north of Glasgow, Scotland) and nearby Coulport nuclear warhead base. Alternatives sites in the UK, France and the US (marked in green) all involve great cost and major domestic and international political downsides.
---
The UK Guardian (Australian edition) June 8, 2016 reports that Prime Minister David Cameron (while still UK Conservative leader) aims to hold the vote on building 4 Trident (Successor class) SSBNs on July 18, 2016.
This timing is partly aimed at sustaining the late June 2016 split in the UK Labour Party Opposition.
The split is between:
- the leftist-pacifists led by Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn (who clearly dislike peace maintaining
nuclear weapons) and
- solid Labour MPs (like John Woodcock of Barrow) whose electorates stand to gain from the
construction of any new SSBNs. There are also many centrist Labour MPs who back Trident.
The timing is also to decide on Trident before the downstream Brexit impact sinks in - of losing the Trident Base (at Faslane, Scotland) and buying the new Trident SSBNs with a diminished "UK" defence budget. By 2019, after the possible break-off of EU-wishing-to-stay-in Scotland and Northern Ireland the "United" Kingdom defence budget may only be able to drew revenue from England and Wales.
See Submarine Matters articles on the Trident debate on:
- April 11, 2012
- May 24, 2016
- June 24, 2016 and
- June 28, 2016
Three of the possible Trident replacement options. See much larger readable image here (Diagram courtesy SIPRI and the Financial Times)
---
Pete