I am ex- Royal Navy, and for many years, I supported Polaris ,and then Trident. But the main threat ,as a counter to which both systems were developed, ( The Soviet Union ), no longer exists, and perhaps the time has come to have a serious rethink on the continuing need for such vastly expensive 'defences' ,especially given the presently pressing need for research into new domestic energy sources. The great paradox about the increasingly complex & expensive weapons systems proliferating in the current theatres of operations is that they do not seem to confer any significant advantage upon the user.I cannot see the logic in spending billions of pounds on equipping a so -called modern army with SA 80 rifles,Blackhawk helicopters,body armour, infra-red sights,Satellite tracking & surveillance,----(the list goes on )when they are still unable to subdue an enemy who wears robes & sandals, and is kitted out with nothing more sophisticated than the WW2 design AK 47 & the equally venerable RPG 30 grenade launcher. Why don"t we try dressing & equipping our troops in the same way ??? It would certainly be more economical !!