UK CDS Underlines Importance of UK’s Nuclear Deterrent Effect on Russia

Admiral Sir Tony Radakin told the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) on 4 December 2024, during the institute’s annual CDS lecture:

“The UK’s nuclear deterrent is the one part of our inventory of which Russia is most aware and has more impact on [Russian president Vladimir] Putin than anything else,”

“This is why successive British governments are investing substantial sums of money to renew both our submarines and warhead, and to recapitalise our nuclear enterprise …. Previously, governments believed they were doing the right thing. Now they know they really are,” said Adm Radakin.

The UK operates a single nuclear deterrent system, based around four Vanguard-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) deployed in a continuous at-sea deterrent (CASD) operational cycle, with one boat on patrol at all times. The deployed SSBN carries up to 40 warheads, fitted to eight Trident II D-5 submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) spread across the boat’s sixteen missile tubes.

Under Operation ‘Relentless’, the UK’s CASD cycle has been delivered continuously now for almost 55 years, said Adm Radakin.

This commitment is continuing, with the building of four new SSBNs. Beginning in the early 2030s, these Dreadnought-class boats will replace the Vanguard boats one-for-one.

The UK is renewing its strategic deterrent capability at a time when the security environment is one Adm Radakin characterised as “more contested, more ambiguous, and more dangerous than we have known in our careers”.

The impact of this deteriorating security environment is very apparent in the nuclear domain, Adm Radakin continued, precipitating what he referred to as the ‘third nuclear age’.

“The first nuclear age – the Cold War – was defined by two opposing blocs governed by the risk of uncontrollable escalation and the logic of deterrence. The second nuclear age was governed by disarmament efforts and counter-proliferation. However, we are at the dawn of a third nuclear age that is altogether more complex. It is defined by multiple and concurrent dilemmas, proliferating nuclear and disruptive technologies, and the almost total absence of the security architectures that went before.”

Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, UK’s Chief of Defence Staff

CDS described the deterrence and wider nuclear security challenges posed by four particular state actors. “From Russia we have seen wild threats of tactical nuclear use [around its war in Ukraine], large-scale nuclear exercises, and simulated attacks against NATO countries, all designed to coerce us from taking the action required to maintain stability,” he said. “China’s nuclear build up poses a ‘two-peer’ challenge to the United States, Iran’s failure to co-operate with the International Atomic Energy Agency [over its national nuclear energy programme] is a concern, and North Korea’s ballistic missile programme and erratic behaviour present a regional and, increasingly, a global threat,” the admiral added.

CDS also pointed to the growing security co-ordination between Russia, Iran, and North Korea as one of the broader global geostrategic shifts underway, noting that the increasingly close relationship between Russia and North Korea in particular “could involve the exchange of the most sensitive technology and expertise”.

Adm Radakin stressed the importance of robust conventional and nuclear deterrence as a means of delivering strategic deterrence and reassurance in the face of shifts in the global power balance and increased state-versus-state geopolitical competition in this third nuclear age. For the UK, being reassured by its national strength as a nuclear power and demonstrating wider resolve are central elements of its deterrence posture, he explained.

In the face of global instability and especially the Russian threat, this robust deterrence is required at both national and NATO levels, CDS continued. “The strategy of deterrence by NATO works and is working, but it has to be kept strong and strengthened against a more dangerous Russia,” said Adm Radakin.

The post UK CDS Underlines Importance of UK’s Nuclear Deterrent Effect on Russia appeared first on Naval News.