Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr K
Best to spend over £200 billion on weapons we'd never use, more than double the annual cost of the NHS. Britain must have the best kit after all, how else are we going to showcase our shiny weapons to dodgy foreign regimes, who might just use them against us....
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This is a common misconception - Trident missiles *are* in use, every day of the year. Their primary purpose is to exist and to provide a credible threat of retaliation to a nuclear first strike. By being deployed aboard Vanguard subs and patrolled around the North Atlantic Ocean, they are being used right now.
Their fall-back purpose is to actually be fired at Moscow or wherever in the event of a nuclear attack on the UK.
"Best kit" meanwhile, is a term better ascribed to conventional arms that can be used in conflicts where the UK has legitimate concerns at levels below that of existential threat. Overwhelming military superiority has a deterrent effect of its own, and also has benefits on the battlefield if deployment is necessary. That was a lesson hard won by the US in Vietnam.