British Navy to Destroy Tactical Nuclear Arms
The British navy will scrap all its tactical nuclear weapons, making its aircraft and surface ships non-nuclear, Defense Secretary Malcolm Rifkind said Monday.
This means the post-Cold War Royal Navy will have nuclear warheads on board only its Polaris and future Trident submarines, which carry strategic weapons.
“It’s significant in that it is a further indication that we live in a changed climate,” Rifkind told a news conference. “The world is a different place.”
The change, foreshadowed last year when the navy said it would stop deploying tactical weapons on its ships, was part of cuts ordered by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, he said.
The move would not leave Britain without a short-range nuclear weapon, Rifkind said, noting that the air force would still have the nuclear WE177 tactical bomb.
Britain, in partnership with the rest of NATO, has announced big cuts in its tactical nuclear arsenal but Rifkind would not give figures.
British nuclear depth charges and other devices covered by the announcement would be destroyed at Aldermaston, west of London.
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