Word: tridents
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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President Carter was delighted with the decision. So was West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. Basking in the approval of major NATO allies, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's government last week announced that it would buy the submarine-launched U.S. Trident missile system to replace an aging Polaris force and thereby upgrade Britain's nuclear deterrent. It was a ringing reaffirmation of the long-standing special relationship between Washington and London. The costly decision was also evidence of Thatcher's determination to keep Britain a nuclear power to be reckoned with...
...announcing the Trident deal to the House of Commons, Defense Secretary Francis Pym explained the government's politico-military rationale. "We need to convince Soviet leaders," he said, "that even if they thought at some critical point, as a conflict developed, that the U.S. would hold back, the British force could still inflict a blow so destructive that the penalty for aggression would have proved too high." Britain will be nearly tripling its nuclear striking power, from 192 war heads mounted on 2,880-mile-range Polaris missiles bought from the U.S. 17 years ago, to 512 independently targetable...
...assured the Commons that the Trident system was the "most cost-effective" successor to Polaris. The total program is estimated at $11.8 billion over 15 years-82.5 billion for the U.S. missiles, the remainder for four or possibly five new submarines and the warheads, all to be built in Britain. The U.S., it is understood, is offering special terms: part of the Tridents' expense will be offset by a U.S. purchase of British Rapier surface-to-air missiles at a cost of $370 million to guard American airbases in Britain...
Britain's nuclear debate is less concerned with doctrine than with money. Specifically, the question is whether the British should buy 80 U.S.-built Trident missiles (range 4,350 miles) to replace the aging 2,880-mile Polaris in a modernized nuclear submarine force. The costs of the Tridents plus their British-made warheads and five new submarines are estimated at $10-billion, to be absorbed over 15 years. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Tory government appears to be set on the Trident option, and the Iron Lady is expected to announce that decision to the Commons later...
...part, Washington is pleased not only with Britain's apparent choice of Trident but also with the French decision to upgrade its force de frappe. "Independently of whatever the French doctrine may be," notes Gregory Flynn, a U.S. strategic expert at the Paris-based Atlantic Institute, "the existence of a French nuclear force is an additional factor of uncertainty for the Soviets." British Defense Secretary Francis Pym justifies the nuclear modernization policy on the same grounds: "Whereas [the Thatcher] government has absolute confidence in the U.S. commitment to Europe . . . a NATO defense containing these powerful independent elements...