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UK warned Trident renewal 'be at expense of conventional forces'

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, July 28, IRNA -- The British government Wednesday was urged by the country’s oldest military institution to scale back controversial plans to replace its Trident nuclear missile system to save defence cuts elsewhere.

“Plans to order a new generation of submarines after 2015 now threatens to be at the expense of further reduction in conventional forces,” the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) warned in a new report.

The report, according to a copy obtained by IRNA, suggested that the government should consider dropping the so-called continuous-at-sea-deterrence (CASD) of always having a nuclear submarine on patrol that has been the basis of UK strategy since 1968.

Britain’s Ministry of Defence is currently facing cuts of up to 20 per cent in its budget. RUSI has previously suggested that it could mean reductions in total service personnel numbers of “around 20-25 per cent by 2019.”

“There is now a strong case for a re-examination of whether alternatives to current CASD policy could yield significant financial savings while continuing to meet this agreed objective,” said author of the new report Professor Malcolm Chalmers.

“The fiscal situation facing the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is significantly worse than was assumed in 2006, when current renewal plans were drawn up by the previous government,” warned Chalmers, who was an advisor to former foreign secretary Jack Straw.

The British government has so far resisted widespread opposition from trade unions, churches and peace campaigners as well as many politicians to replace the country’s nuclear deterrent.

Defence Secretary Liam Fox has refused to include the multi-billion costs in the government Strategic Defence Review, although he has indicated that three submarines may be built instead of four.

RUSI, which was founded back in 1831, proposed four options, including delaying peak spending in the renewal program until 2019/2020 and redefine what is meant by 'CASD' to cut the fleet of boats from four to three.

Alternatively the fleet could be reduced to only two by abandoning CASD in normal circumstances or even building a 'Dual-Capable' Submarine Force, which could be used either for conventional or deterrent roles.

The most radical option would be to abandon the UK's submarine-based nuclear deterrent and maintain only a non-deployed arsenal that offers the greatest financial savings.

In his budget last month, Chancellor George Osborne said departments would face average cuts of 25% when the government's public spending review was completed in October - potentially bigger than anything attempted by a previous UK government.

Last week, Fox spoke of the war in Afghanistan hampering plans to cut the size of the UK’s 100,000 strong army in line with necessary defence budget reductions.

“Everything that we might want to do with the Army will be constrained by what’s happening in Afghanistan,” he said, while warning that the government cannot afford to protect Britain against all potential threats to its security.