U.K. Discreetly Trimming to 180 or Fewer Nuclear Warheads

[bananas]

Source: Global Security Newswire

The United Kingdom has been decommissioning and breaking down Trident nuclear warheads at a rate of three per year, with a goal of reducing domestic stocks to "no more than 180" by the mid-2020s, the London Guardian reported.

Great Britain currently has a nuclear weapons stockpile of approximately 225 warheads, according to the newspaper. The U.K. government in June 2011 announced that the cache of warheads would be reduced by 45 to meet the intent stated in Britain's 2010 Defense Review.

The quiet and gradual disassembly program has resulted in the modification of a number of warheads "to render them unusable while others identified as no longer being required for service are currently stored and have not yet been disabled or modified," Sue Ford, a Defense Ministry equipment and support policy official, told the Guardian.

The report comes almost a week after the United Kingdom's Liberal Democrats announced they would hold a party vote next month on a proposal to disarm some of the nation's nuclear-missile equipped submarines.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/u-k-discreetly-trimming-180-fewer-nuclear-warheads-120204605.html

[RitchieRich]

1. divided

Part of me thinks this is wonderful

Part of me doesn't believe a word of it

Part of me thinks that even if it were true it would be unwise to disarm while the rest of the world races to arm itself.

[AtheistCrusader]

2. Most of the world is trimming said stocks of nuclear weapons.

Hell, even Pakistan is making overtures. That's amazing right there.

[ConcernedCanuk]

3. I don't believe it

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eom

CC

[jasond54231]

4. If this is true, then it's a smart move by the Brits

Although I'm pretty skeptical, like the other posters. In any case, nukes are a danger to human life, and the proliferation of such weapons needs to be curbed.

[Nihil]

5. Good.

Mind you, it would have been better the cache of warheads was to be
reduce to 45 (rather than by 45) but maybe with another couple of
iterations we'll get there ...