Debate Magazine
Testing Times: Whose Independent Missle Test Anyway?
Posted on the 24 January 2017 by Markwadsworth @Mark_Wadsworth
Testing times again for a Defense Secretary over the latest Trident Program. It was never, ever simple though. Back in the 1960’s everybody understood that the British goal
of Nato was to keep the American Empire in, the German’s down, and the Russian Empire
out. But it was never clear how the British, Sub launched, ‘Independent’, Doomsday
weapons contributed to this system. At that time the American’s made some deals
with Russia (Salt 1,2) that they would limit methods of shooting down the incoming
missiles. The Russian deployed what anti- ballistic missiles they were allowed
to own around Moscow. The problem for the British, who had Polaris, was that it
could only deliver 16x2 warheads. Not enough to wipe out the target. But it may
well have been the case that Britain, in Polaris, had an ‘Independent’ system. Because
we quickly made clever party balloons that would deploy in space and spoof the Soviet
counter missile control systems around Moscow (Christ comrade! It looks 16x10
ish warheads). So keeping the end of the world in our hands too. The Americans
had to admit that we were very clever. But they had to make sure we couldn’t do
that again. Why? The British ‘Independent’ system, Washington knew, was never
designed to scare the Russians, but was always designed to scare them. We
threated to trip the exchange between American and the USSR by making the
attack look big enough to be the first American wave on Moscow. That’s it then:
a 1960s ‘Independent’ British system actually targets the American political elite,
because, in the end, we did not trust them much more than we trusted the
Russians.
Now Trident D3,4,5 does not need to spoof (I bet it does
though). But is it Independent? Thinking about the headlines; who really tested
the missile? I conjecture, given the non- classified history above, that the
British test was actually a deeper American test. The American’s were showing
the Russian’s and the Chinese that there is no Independent British deterrent,
and that they will be the ones who decide the fate of the world not the British. 'All telemetery old chap, don't you know'.
So what is all the smoke and fire about an Independent Nuclear Deterrent?
Simple. I suspect that, by chance, the British and Americans have alighted on
this hugely expensive mechanism as our particular method of paying our tribute
to the American Empire. We are just servants to the empire, but everybody is happy?