UK urged to prepare for Donald Trump halting Trident partnership
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/defence/article/uk-urged-to-prepare-for-donald-trump-halting-trident-partnership-cj8rdjw0w
Posted by insomnimax_99
UK urged to prepare for Donald Trump halting Trident partnership
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/defence/article/uk-urged-to-prepare-for-donald-trump-halting-trident-partnership-cj8rdjw0w
Posted by insomnimax_99
30 Comments
Given that Trump is a Russian agent and the Pee Pee Tape is most certainly real, we should be doing everything we can to prepare ourselves for going it alone or with the EU.
We need to be forging trade deals with Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Thailand and South Korea among others, strengthening NATO and increasing our own defence capabilities.
Maybe we’ll even start holding tax dodging US businesses to account…
good, time for the UK and Eu to stand on their own 2 feet
It’s about bloody time we replaced trident anyway. It’s an old program lol.
The purpose of Trident is to be a deterrent, if it has failed twice, once last year and another time 8 years ago, is it still an effective deterrent?
an act like this would surely end military spending and cooperation with the States indefinitely.
Shouldn’t have ever been outsourced, just on principle if we’re going to be a nuclear power let’s keep it in house and solely/absolutely under our control and not outsource it like we do pretty much everything else to our own detriment, sure no doubt costs more but it’s ours, its employment and would no doubt keep very intelligent people here rather than going abroad.
The last two times we attempted to fire a Trident missile they failed. They owe us a refund.
Call Boris and ask why Brexit 😂 happened ! Being partner of USA would be enough and UK wouldn’t need Europe but pffff. it’s gone and you re left in the middle. Boris ? Farage ? Come on boys pay the damage.
We do everything but the missiles in the uk anyway, which will need to be replaced after their lifespan. This isn’t as bad as it appears on paper.
The warheads themselves, the subs, everything else is uk made and maintained.
‘Hey America, we and Canada are quite far along with our atomic bomb programme, why don’t we pool resources to bring the war more swiftly to an end? Here’s our research, for free’
‘Thanks.’
‘Now please send us the plans.’
‘Lol no.’
Honestly, we’ve only got ourselves to blame for trusting the US ever again after Tube Alloys.
to think the mob voted for GB to be all alone
And I never thought I’d feel this way
And as far as I’m concerned
I’m glad I got the chance to say
That I do believe I love you
And if I should ever go away
Well, then close your eyes and try
To feel the way we do today
And then if you can remember Keep smilin’, keep shinin’
Knowing you can always count on me for sure
That’s what friends are for
For good times and bad times
I’ll be on your side forever more
That’s what friends are for Well, you came and opened me
And now there’s so much more I see
And so by the way I thank you
Oh and then for the times when we’re apart
Well, then close your eyes and know
These words are coming from my heart
And then if you can remember Oh, keep smilin’ and keep shinin’
Knowing you can always count on me for sure
That’s what friends are for
In good times and bad times
I’ll be on your side forever more
Oh, that’s what friends are for Keep smilin’, keep shinin’
Knowing you can always count on me for sure
That’s what friends are for
For good times and bad times
I’ll be on your side forever more
That’s what friends are for Keep smilin’, keep shinin’
Knowing you can always count on me for sure
‘Cause I tell you that’s what friends are for
For good times and for bad times
I’ll be on your side forever more
That’s what friends are for (that’s what friends are for, ya) On me for sure (count on me for sure, count on me for sure)
That’s what friends are for Keep smilin’, keep shinin’
The world has changed too much, we should go back to EU like an embarrassed ex who thought it was better with Chad.
It’s kinda insane that it was never maintained by the UK. I know the US used to be a good ally but this one thing we should’ve been more like the French in not everything needs to be outsourced we have a lot of very intelligent and capable people in this country let’s use them even if it is a bit more expensive
We should be cutting all ties with Comrade Trump anyway, he’s laid his bed. It’s clear which side he’s on.
Surprisingly decent article actually on nuclear matters, though I would take what Nicholas Drummond says with a pinch of salt, he comes out with some absolute fantasy shit sometimes.
If we want to reduce reliance on the US, step one is to upgrade Coulport so that we can do the refurbishment if Trident ourselves, and then bring it all back in house. Step 2 I suppose would be to exercise our right under the Polaris Sales Agreement to manufacture spare parts ourselves too. At that stage we can keep Trident going as long as necessary.
The last stage would be to run a program to replace the missile with a new SLBM, either indigenously or with the French. There’s a couple problems involved in collaboration though, not least that the US would certainly object, but also that our submarines have different sized launch tubes.
I think it is far simpler. From Trump’s perspective if you are not American he doesn’t care how problems are solved.
If it is easier for you to think he is a Russian agent to deal with this truth go for it
In the end, Trump only cares about advancing the US interests and that’s a fact
any future defence contracts/agreements need to come from europe and the commonwealth
We need to start taking control and simply sidelining the USA. This is a list after long conversation with gpt but I think makes some sense.
• Ditch the dollar – trade in euros, not USD
• Tax U.S. tech – regulate Amazon, Google, Tesla
• Buy EU weapons – stop relying on U.S. arms
• Build an EU army – reduce NATO dependence
• Lead Ukraine talks – cut U.S. military influence
• Energy independence – stop overpaying for U.S. gas
• Financial warfare – block U.S. takeovers of EU startups
• Data & cyber sovereignty – keep EU data away from U.S. firms
• Undermine Wall Street – push euro-based global trade
• Pull in Latin America & Africa – shift them from U.S. control
• Play U.S. vs. China – extract better deals from both
• Control trade routes – secure Arctic & naval power
People interested in policy in this area should read [The Secret State](https://vulcantothesky.org/product/the-secret-state/) – relevant in this case is that the UK started an independent nuclear programme _because_ the US was seen as an unreliable partner.
This would lead to harming the US submarine deterrent programme, which of course Trump would simply not understand.
“Whatever [Trump] decides it won’t affect our current ability because he will be out of office by the time the missiles need to be replaced.”
Bold of you to assume, Mr. Ellwood.
Unless we do as he says and side with Russia.
Even then, he is still likely to do it because in his mind, Nato is a waste of money, the US does too much for fuck all in return and he is always right.
The orange muppet(Apologises to the muppets, the actual muppets would be a better president) is really doing everything Putin wants.
No problem, even if Lockheed blocks access to missile bodies from the shared pool the US and UK Navies bought, all the rest of the kit is entirely proprietary. UK has the capability to manufacture its own replacement missiles, already make their own warheads, and sits on a notable stockpile of HEU.
There is no more relationship with America. Not just for the UK but for the rest of the civilised world too. It is better to accept this now and move on than to pretend we can salvage a relationship with Trump.
We need to start working with the French, it sounds like they have a delivery mechanism for the warheads that isn’t reliant on the US, maybe we can cut a deal with them?
We need to wean ourselves off dependence on the US as much as we possibly can, but especially for critical stuff like this. We still have trident missiles to use but we need to be producing the actual missiles ourselves so we can’t be cut off. Otherwise we don’t have a real deterrent.
US satellite targeting systems may be an issue for some weapons types too – we need UK and European alternatives for those. We saw this issue with Biden being able to block storm shadow use in Russia because they used US satellites for their terrain mapping guidance system.
The UK should never have relied on a foreign nation, even if they’re an ally for our nuclear program. We’ve spent decades coasting by on the good graces of the US. That era is over we need to pick up the pieces and rebuild our military position in the world in a way that allows us to aid our allies without being reliant on them.
Looking forward to 6 months or a year from now when all this hyperbole and bedwetting will be reflected on for what it is.
At the end of the day I believe the only reason the US started allowing us to have access to their Nuclear secrets all those years ago was because we had started to produce better/more powerful nuclear weapons than the US and the US couldn’t handle that, by allowing us access to their secrets they can con us into going in to a pact with them so we don’t develop our nukes even further.
And if Trump does pull us out of Trident then that’s the time to say to trump “I want all your service personnel out of the UK within a week and we’re taking over all your military bases for our use”