Are you ever going to use 200+ nuclear weapons on an enemy? Really? We can’t even drop 2000lb’ers on a city block, let alone flatten an entire city! Things have changed.

With a decent SLBM the point is you don’t HAVE to use 200+ warheads as MAD comes into play when someone else attacks you with a nuke, a cruise missile deterrent is not in the same league. Can’t drop a 2000lb on a city block? I have no idea what you are saying here.

If things have changed so much how come other countries are developing nuclear weapons and specifically ballistic missiles, India will soon have her first SSBN, Iran and Korea are working on ballistic missiles all the time and you want to surrender ours on cost grounds?

And GRIM, “The cost of our nuclear deterrent is tiny compared to a lot of the things this government buys each year” … compare to what is wasted on other things yes, but £50 billion is not tiny. You can buy a heck of a lot of CVs, F-35s, Chinooks and body armour etc for that amount of money. If it was a choice which would you choose?

How about compared to £15b on an NHS computer system that currently doesn’t work, or an overseas development budget in the billions each year (£7.5b in 2009 rising to £9.1b in 2010/11), there’s all sorts of crap that the Government could and should cut funding for way before Trident replacement.

If you need to retaliate you can flatten someones capital with 6 cruise missiles with 500Kt warheads (not that you ever would).

Not if they get shot down you can’t and cruise missiles are just the sort of targets that S300/S400 were built to intercept.

Too expensive and when would you ever envisage firing a full salvo of an SSBNs Tridents? We (the UK) are now too poor! Even £50B over 25 years is still a 1/16 of our current defence budget per year … It was commonly thought that going Trident cost the Navy its real carriers last time around – what will be the cost this time?

As for NATO a force under NATO control – we do’t work properly as a force in Afghan the theater – how on earth would we ever reach a decision on a nuclear strike?

Are SLBM now vulnerable to S-300/400 systems and therefore not unstoppable as they once were?

I’d rather have 2 x CVs with a decent air wing and escort group of DDGs and a decently funded army. Go for a nuclear stealthy cruise missile and put it in a SSN if we want a big stick.

All IMHO of course 😉

If you’re talking about a cruise missile then surely we’re talking about a tactical warhead? Not much of a big stick?

Thats ironic! South Korea beat Germany selling what is in effect a German submarine.

You would of thought that there was some sort of end user agreement preventing South Korea from exporting it for exactly this purpose?

:confused:

Also Atago was a Heavy Cruiser not a battlecruiser:D

BMT Venator does feature a retractable hanger, although possibly you could be talking about a permanent (proper) one?

“Whatever you do, don’t mention the war!”
– Basil Fawlty (John Cleese), “Fawlty Towers”, episode 6
“The Germans”

Well I can see what you mean but; with a number of ship names of the WWII era Imperial Japanese Navy already in use: Soryu, Hyuuga, Karishima, Kongo, Atago, soon to be Ise, probably others as well………

*Not just the USCG & Irish – Spain, Ecuador, Turkey, Indonesia, Brunei, Colombia, Venezuela & UAE have bought it.

If that’s the case then we should definitely think about using buying some, but will probably go for something bespoke that will cost a fortune:(

I’m wondering if there is any worth to a smaller SSN as a cheaper alternative to Astutes to act as task force escort instead of SSKs? Ideally something with a smaller payload more focused on keeping nasties away from a task group, but I guess that would take us back into the territory of specialist Hunter killers instead of the multi role Missile/torp carriers that the RN and USN are focused around.

At least the MRA4s will restore the lost range. They’re longer-ranged to start with, & should be safe for AAR. But as you say, not enough of ’em.

Definitely not, one feels that something needs to come to supplement them.