Nicola Sturgeon recently made an impassioned statement in the Guardian for the moral case against nuclear weapons and their positioning in Scotland. I was Executive Officer (second in command) of a Polaris submarine based in Scotland in the early 1970s. I support her stand and can add some observations of my own from my unique perspective.
Long in retirement, I followed the 2016 Parliamentary debate on whether to renew the current Trident submarines with interest. It seemed largely to consist of patriotic polemic in support of an extremely expensive programme, the impact of which on the Royal Navy’s budget has reduced the number of frigates below critical mass. Furthermore, it did not address any of the issues of how and when Trident might be used, referring only to ‘Last Resort’. I was particularly struck by the then Prime Minister’s (PM) assertion that she would “press the nuclear button.” While the PM makes the decision to fire, it is the captain on patrol who tuns the ‘Captain’s Key’ and says “You have my permission to fire”.
Current UK Trident policy
In my day we had a simple choice – if the Soviets fired nuclear weapons at us would we fire back? Answer – Yes. Today, the policy for Trident is much more complex and could include a pre-emptive (first use) strike to support troops in the field threatened, say, with biological weapons. The Government indicated this in a Minister’s statement prior to the 2003 Iraq War and still states that it has “ neither a ‘first use’ nor a ‘no first use’ policy”. Therefore first use remains an option. This significantly lowers the nuclear threshold, and has profound implications for the captain.
