IV. British nuclear forces

Chapter:

8. World nuclear forces

Source:

SIPRI Yearbook 2010

Author(s):

Shannon N. Kile, Vitaly Fedchenko, Bharath Gopalaswamy, Hans M. Kristensen

The United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent consists exclusively of a sea-based component: Vanguard Class Trident SSBNs, Trident II (D5) SLBMs and associated warheads, and support infrastructure. In March 2009 the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, confirmed that the UK’s inventory of ‘operationally available warheads’ had been reduced to fewer than 160⁶⁷. These weapons are available for use by a fleet of four Trident SSBNs (see table 8.4). The UK leases the D5 SLBMs from the US Navy. Under a system of ‘mingled asset ownership’, the missiles to be loaded onto British submarines are randomly selected from the stockpile at the US Navy’s Trident facility in Kings Bay, Georgia. The submarines then go to the Royal Naval Armaments Depot at Coulport, Scotland, where the missiles are fitted with nuclear warheads designed and manufactured at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), Aldermaston, England. The Trident fleet is based at Faslane, Scotland. On 26 May 2009, HMS Victorious successfully test-launched a D5 missile off the Atlantic coast of Florida as part of a demonstration and shakedown operation following a refuelling overhaul⁶⁸.