France has offered to create a joint UK-French nuclear deterrent by sharing submarine patrols. Officials from both countries have discussed how a deterrence-sharing scheme might work but Britain has so far opposed the idea on the grounds that such pooling of sovereignty would be politically unacceptable.
Britain and France each maintain “continuous at-sea deterrence,” which involves running at least one nuclear-armed submarine submerged and undetected at any given time. It is a hugely expensive undertaking, and its usefulness in a post-cold war world has long been questioned by disarmament campaigners.
Britain’s independent deterrent, based on Trident missiles carried by submarines, could cost the country up to £100 billion (US$151 billion), according to some estimates, once planned modernization to the fleet has been completed.
France also maintains a four-submarine Strategic Oceanic Force, with each submarine armed with 16 missiles.
Last September British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Britain’s submarine fleet could be reduced from four to three as a gesture towards disarmament, but the total financial savings were reported as relatively small.
“We have talked about the idea of sharing continuity at sea as part of a larger discussion about sharing defense burdens,” a French official said.
A British official confirmed that the French government had raised the idea of shared “continuous at-sea deterrence.”
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Brown discussed the idea when Sarkozy visited London in March 2008. The joint declaration afterwards simply said the two countries would “foster our bilateral dialogue on nuclear deterrence.”
The same month, Sarkozy hinted at the potential for shared deterrence in a speech at Cherbourg.
“Together with the United Kingdom, we have taken a major decision: It is our assessment that there can be no situation in which the vital interests of either of our two nations could be threatened without the vital interests of the other also being threatened,” he said.
Sarkozy and Brown met again in Downing Street last Friday and “discussed some issues on the nuclear agenda,” according to Downing Street.
Following an underwater collision between French and British nuclear-armed submarines last February, French Defense Minister Herve Morin said the two navies would consider coordinating patrols.
“Between France and Britain, there are things we can do together ... one of the solutions would be to think about the patrol zones,” he said.
It is unclear whether Morin’s offer was taken up by the Royal Navy. The Sarkozy proposal would go much further — Britain and France would take turns to maintain an underwater vigil.
Proposals for closer UK-French defense cooperation have been driven by Paris, British defense officials emphasized yesterday.
Britain and France could synchronize nuclear deterrent patrols and cooperate in the deployment of surface fleet task forces, sources say. However, British officials played down the possibility of formal agreements on the nuclear deterrent — or on sharing each other’s aircraft carriers.
“We could not make a full commitment,” a defense source said, referring to the deployment of carriers. He referred to the British intervention in Sierra Leone 10 years ago and Iraq. France did not “want to have anything to do with” either operation, the source said.
However, both governments say they recognize the potential scope for much closer cooperation both in terms of strategy and in procuring new weapons systems.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago have retrieved his backpack from the spot — finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 — as did his climbing partner — while descending Argentina’s Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro’s daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. Last month, the three set out with four other guides
RSS