Government and Military

Proliferation and Arms Control Secretariat

Ministry of Defence

Main Building, Whitehall

London SW1A 2HB 7 August 1998

Dear Mr Mackenzie

Thank you for your letter of 30 June to Rear Admiral Gregory, Flag Officer Scotland, Northern England and Northern Ireland concerning Trident and Trident Ploughshares 2000. It has been passed to me to reply as the Proliferation and Arms Control Secretariat is the Division responsible for policy on the matters you raise.

The Government strongly upholds the right of anyone to demonstrate peacefully in support of the cause in which they believe. Criminal activity is, however, totally unacceptable, as is direct encouragement of service personnel to refuse to carry out their legal duties. The Government is confident that the United Kingdom’s entirely defensive deterrent posture is consistent with international law. There is no question of those personnel engaged in its support or operation acting illegally under the Nuremburg Principles.

The Government has consistently made clear its commitment to the goal of the global elimination of nuclear weapons. But this cannot be achieved in isolation from wider political and security realities. Progress on arms control is therefore an important objective of the Government’s foreign and defence policy. The challenge is to create conditions whereby states judge that they do not have a requirement for nuclear weapons to safeguard their security. The Government hopes for further bilateral reductions in US and Russian strategic weapons through the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty process, and to see progress towards reducing the thousands of Russian shorter range weapons. It is pressing for immediate negotiations for a verifiable, legally binding international convention banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons. The United Kingdom ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in April and the Government is working for its early implementation. It is also working for the effective implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, and for agreement of verification measures to strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention.

While large nuclear arsenals remain the United Kingdom’s minimum nuclear deterrent remains a necessary element of our security. However, the Strategic Defence Review has conducted a rigorous re-examination of our deterrence requirements. It concluded that we can now maintain fewer than 200 operationally available nuclear warheads, a reduction of one third from the maximum 300 announced by the previous Government and of more that 70% in the potential explosive power of the deterrent since the end of the Cold War. Trident submarines on deterrent patrol will carry 48 warheads. This is the same number as the Polaris submarines carried when they entered service, and compares to the previous Government’s ceiling of 96 warheads on each submarine. In the light of the improvement in current strategic circumstances the United Kingdom’s nuclear forces can also now be maintained at reduced readiness. Only one Trident submarine will be on deterrent patrol at any time, at a "notice to fire" measured in days, rather than the few minutes sustained throughout the Cold War. All the Trident missiles are detargeted.

I hope this explains the position.

Yours sincerely

Stephen Willmer

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