alanabit, is mistaken in his post of 06 Mar 07 - 08:35 AM

"We are not able to use Trident without American permission anyway, certainly not politically and almost certainly not practically. We are therefore in the ridiculous position of being a perfectly legitimate nuclear target, while at the same time, we are not able to determine how our weaponry is used."


Firing Trident does not require the permission, the satellites or the codes of any other country (i.e. the United States) and that therefore it is fully operationally independent.

However, that having been said, Britain is technically dependent on the United States. For cost reasons, British Trident missiles are serviced at a US port in Georgia. Should the decision be taken to extend the lives of the current Trident D5 Missiles then this work will have to be a US/UK collaboration. Once the current missiles become obsolete (technically) in the 2040's, the UK would have to work with the US when the US develops a replacement for the D5 missile. Should Britain decide to modify the warheads themselves, that work too would rely heavily on US participation as the warhead components would be theirs and the computer models used also belong to the US.