Comment on The Future of the United Kingdom's Nuclear Deterrent

Comment onThe Future of the United Kingdom's Nuclear Deterrent(The White Paper presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Defense and theSecretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs; December 4, 2006)a b cby Richard L. Garwin, Philip E. Coyle, . Theodore A. Postol anddFrank von Hippelth1. On December 4 , Prime Minister Blair announced in Parliament his Government’sdecision to replace Britain’s four Trident ballistic-missile submarines with a successorfleet. He asserted that the service life of these submarines can be extended to only 30years, which would mean that the submarines would have to be retired in 20231(Vanguard), 2025 (Victorious), 2026 (Vigilant), and 2029 (Vengeance)____________aRichard L. Garwin is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering, National Academy ofSciences, and the Institute of Medicine. He has received the National Medal of Science and the Enrico FermiAward, as well as R.V. Jones Award in Scientific Intelligence. For many years he chaired for the President'sScience Advisory Committee (PSAC) the Antisubmarine Warfare Panel, the Naval Warfare Panel, and theMilitary Aircraft Panel. He served for many years also on the Strategic Military Panel of PSAC. He is a long-standing consultant to the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Sandia National Laboratories and iscurrently involved with assessments of the U.S. nuclear weapons program. He continues to be active withcontributing to and assessing ...