![]() Unfortunately, however, there exists no other facility in the UK that can house nuclear missile submarines with appropriate security and maintenance considerations, and experts estimate that it would take decades and potentially billions of pounds to construct another.Įven if an independent Scotland were to allow these nuclear forces to remain on its soil, the future of the Trident program is by no means set in stone. In fact, in the case of a Scottish vote for independence, Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party has pledged to negotiate the removal of the Trident system from Scotland within the next five years. Many Scots find the presence of nuclear weapons morally objectionable and would prefer a policy that expressly prohibits the presence of nuclear weapons on Scottish soil, similar to that of NATO countries such as Canada, Lithuania, and Norway. Among the many economic and policy questions that a Scottish move towards independence would bring about, perhaps the most important involves the fate of Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons system.Īt present, Trident missiles are delivered by the four Vanguard-class submarines based out of the Faslane naval base in Scotland. ![]() With Scotland having voted to remain in the EU by a significant margin, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon of Scotland has stated that a second referendum on Scottish independence from the UK is highly likely. Nowhere is this reality clearer than in the realm of nuclear security. In the aftermath of the British vote to leave the European Union, it has become apparent that extricating the United Kingdom from decades of EU membership will be no simple task.
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