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Britain has 50 missiles left over from 2008, after purchases from a US stockpile...
Britain's ability to rely on the US to maintain its nuclear arsenal is in doubt, experts have warned.
An existing debate over the future of Trident – Britain's aging submarine-launched nuclear missile system – has taken a dramatic new turn in recent weeks amid fears that Donald Trump could withdraw from NATO.
A number of concerns had already emerged over the £3bn-a-year programme, not least about its efficiency and effectiveness, following a failed second launch test last year.
Downing Street sought to downplay concerns earlier this week after diplomatic figures, including former British ambassador to the US, Sir David Manning, presented a scenario of an end to Anglo-American nuclear cooperation.
However, calls for Britain to make alternative plans have been joined by former UK foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who initiated talks in the 1990s between the UK and France on nuclear weapons cooperation.
"It is really necessary for Britain and France to work more closely together, because if American credibility is called into question, then Europe could be vulnerable to Russian aggression," he said.
"America's contribution must now be to some extent in doubt, not today or tomorrow, but over the next few years and certainly as long as Trump and people like him are in control in Washington," he added.
A government spokesman insisted this week that Keir Starmer saw the US as a reliable ally, saying: "The UK's nuclear shield is fully operationally independent."
However, the UK - unlike France - is very much intertwined with the US when it comes to maintaining its nuclear weapons, which are designed, manufactured and maintained in the US under an agreement rooted in 1958. Britain has 50 missiles left over as of 2008, after purchases from a US stockpile, according to a study by the University of Bradford.
Defence analysts are stressing the need to plan for a scenario where a transatlantic relationship breaks down to the extent that the US refuses to give the UK missiles. / Adapted from “Pamphlet” by “The Guardian”
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