PM set to announce increase nuclear warheads for Faslane subs
Boris Johnson is announcing the latest UK defence review later
Boris Johnson is set to raise the cap on Britain's stockpile of Trident nuclear warheads, based on the Clyde, ending three decades of gradual disarmament, it has been reported.
The Government's Integrated Review of security, defence, development and foreign policy will increase limit from 180 to 260 warheads, according a leaked copy obtained by the Guardian.
The paper said that it paves the way for a £10 billion rearmament in response to perceived threats from Russia and China.
The Prime Minister will set out the findings of the year-long survey - billed as the most radical reassessment of Britain's place in the world since the end of the Cold War - in the Commons.
The 100-page document - entitled Global Britain in a Competitive Age - argues the increase in nuclear warheads cap is "in recognition of the evolving security environment'' and the "developing range of technological and doctrinal threats,'' the Guardian said.
"A minimum, credible, independent nuclear deterrent, assigned to the defence of Nato, remains essential in order to guarantee our security and that of our allies,'' the review says.
The review states that Russia under Vladimir Putin represents an "active threat'' however the language on China is more measured, saying Beijing poses a "systemic challenge''.
Dangerous move warns Scottish CND
Scottish CND Chair Lynn Jamieson said: “What neo-colonial delusions and swaggering machismo goes from building ‘a better Britain’ to investment in more nuclear weapons - good for agonising mass death and poisoning for all living things but nothing else.
"Forget the old think of ‘deterrence’ the majority world is moving on. Commitment to more nuclear weapons is dangerous nose-thumbing at the Non-Proliferation Treaty which some state actors regard as potentially dovetailing with the UN Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
"Rather than negotiations towards cessation of the nuclear arms race as the NPT requests, our government is starting its own. The climate emergency, the pandemic and the Brexit catastrophe require a focus on real security achieved by reducing inequalities and working to heal environmental and social harms - nuclear weapons are the antithesis.”
The document is expected to include the creation of a new state-of-the-art counter-terrorism operations centre to streamline the response of police and the intelligence agencies in the event of an attack.
The will also be a new "situation centre'' in the Cabinet Office similar to the White House situation room where Barack Obama was able to watch the US special forces operation to kill Osama bin Laden in real time.