Cables Cast Doubt on British Nuke Reduction

Two high-ranking British officials privately told U.S. diplomats in fall 2009 that the modernization of the United Kingdom's nuclear-armed submarine fleet would take place, regardless of comments made by then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown about potential strategic reductions, the London Guardian reported on Wednesday (see GSN, Nov. 9).

A dispatch from the U.S. Embassy in London detailed a conversation in which British officials Richard Freer and Judith Gough minimized Brown's statement to the U.N. General Assembly that the United Kingdom could reduce the number of planned replacement Trident ballistic missile submarines (see GSN, Sept. 24, 2009).

Brown told the General Assembly in September 2009, "In line with maintaining our nuclear deterrent, I have asked our national security committee to report to me on the potential future reduction of our nuclear weapon submarines from four to three."

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