Jeremy Corbyn is a British politician who is a member of the British Labour Party. In 2015 he was elected to his current position as Leader of the Labour Party. He is also the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament. Corbyn describes himself as a democratic socialist. He has been sharply critical of inequality and poverty in the U.K. He advocates the nationalization of public utilities and the railways, abolishing university tuition fees and a unilateral nuclear disarmament.
This week, he said on a BBC radio program, "I am opposed to the use of nuclear weapons. I am opposed to the holding of nuclear weapons. I want to see a nuclear-free world. I believe it is possible. I do not think we should be renewing Trident... I think we should be promoting an international nuclear weapons convention which would lead to a nuclear-free world." As might be expected, such a bold statement aroused controversy in the U.K. Supporters of nuclear weapons were quick to condemn Corbyn's position.
The only nuclear weapons that Britain has are U.S. manufactured Trident intercontinental ballistic missiles on four Vanguard-class submarines based at Faslane in Scotland. Each sub can carry as many as sixteen missiles and each missile can carry up to twelve independently targetable nuclear warheads. Each warhead has a maximum yield equivalent to one hundred kilotons of TNT. If one of these warheads detonated in the air over central London, about two hundred and fifty thousand people would be killed. The Trident missile has a range of about four thousand six hundred miles and takes about twenty minutes to reach its maximum range.
It is believed that the British Royal Navy only has fifty eight Trident missiles and one hundred and ninety two warheads. The British only have one sub on patrol at any time. Each missile on the patrolling sub probably has three warheads. This count estimates that the patrolling sub has about forty eight warheads.
So the British sub on patrol could theoretically kill about three million people bytargetingforty eight of the biggest cities in Russia. The theory is that if Britain were attacked and destroyed by Russian nuclear missiles and bombs, the patrolling sub could still devastate Russia. The subs are based at Faslane in Scotland.
The current four submarines are going to be retired in 2020. Parliament voted to replace them with new submarines which are estimated by the Ministry of Defence to cost about forty billion dollars. Greenpeace estimates the cost at around fifty billion. Corbyn gives a much higher number but he may be talking about the total cost of the nuclear deterrence system. In any case, the replacement of the submarines will be a major expense for Britain.
Only the Prime Minister has the authority to launch Britain's Trident missiles. When a new Prime Minister is elected, the commanders of each of the four submarines are given sealed letters which are known as letters of last resort. They contain instruction for the commanders of the vessels to carry out in case the British government and chain of command have been destroyed. When a Prime Minister leaves office, his letters of last resort are destroyed. It is believed that there are four different options that may be contained in a particular letter of last resort. 1) Retaliate with nuclear warheads against the country that attacked Britain. 2) Do not retaliate. 3) The commander is to exercise his own judgement. 4) Turn over the command of the sub to a surviving ally. It has been claimed that if a sub cannot reach Royal Naval command and the BBB Radio 4 station has not broadcast for several days, the commander is to assume that Britain has been destroyed.
I believe that Jeremy Corbyn has taken a brave and wise position to foreswear nuclear weapons. Nuclear war is unwinnable and retaliation would serve to kill many more civilians that would be killed in the initial attack on Britain.
British Vanguard submarine:
