Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon T
Mutual Assured Destruction
V bombers, then Polaris
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MAD purely involved the US and USSR - the USSR can wipe out essentially every human being on the British Isles, we certainly cannot do likewise.
We have no nuclear bomber force, our sole nuclear force is
Trident SLBMs.
---------- Post added at 18:54 ---------- Previous post was at 18:49 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by BBKing
Actually, Britain's independent deterrent has always been based on the theory that we can do enough damage to the Russians that they wouldn't launch a limited strike to take us out (limited enough that the US might hesitate to go all-out).
In other words, we can't wipe them out, but we don't need to to deter them.
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Exactly, the Russians would have had to go somewhat beyond a tactical strike and rather closer to a heavy strike. It's estimated that a full nuclear attack on the UK would be 200MT or higher - doubtful the US would have tolerated that but our independent deterrent was more than strong enough to provoke that from the Russians.