As Emily Thornberry, Shadow Defence Secretary, closes the consultation period on her defence review, critics of the review have been engaging on the substance. They worry that minds currently are just a little too open to alternatives for comfort, and that a non-Trident alternative could become Labour policy.
Trident
Price tag on Trident nuclear missile fleet still unknown but rising
Richard Norton-Taylor has written an article for the Guardian on April 26th about the rising costs of Trident and has cited BASIC’s input into the ongoing financial debate.
SNP MP blasts Trident ‘factsheet’ as short on facts
Andrew Learmonth from the National wrote an article outlining the criticisms of SNP MP, Kirsten Oswald, regarding a recently published factsheet by the UK Government on Trident. The article goes on to cite BASIC in outlining the projected costs of Trident renewal, and pulls quotes directly from a recent publication written by Dr. Nick Ritchie.
Feeding the ‘Monster’: Escalating Capital Costs for the Trident Successor Programme
In October 2015 Jon Thomson, Permanent Under Secretary at the Ministry of Defence, described the Trident Successor programme as a “monster” that kept him up at night, “the biggest project the Ministry of Defence will ever take on” and “an incredibly complicated area in which to try to estimate future costs.”
Trident is Vulnerable
A debate is now raging over BASIC's exposure of the threat emerging technologies present to the future viability of Trident submarines. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) states they do not believe it is a problem, and that even if it were submarines would still be the best, most stealthy platform for nuclear missiles. The confidence implied in the MoD's public line is unjustified, and must surely cover up a deep concern held by strategists for the future viability of its most expensive weapon system.
Britain’s deep-sea defence: out of time?
Paul Rogers, a professor writing for Open Democracy, published an article outlining the threat of emerging technologies on the UK's nuclear submarines, particularly the advancement of swarming technologies. The article references BASIC as an organisation that address the issue of underwater technologies, and also sources David Hambling's briefing on emerging underwater drones.
Britain’s Trident Nuclear Program at Risk From Unmanned Sub Drones
Sputnik News published an article that was based on reports written by BASICs David Hambling on the security of the Trident replacement, given the emergence of new underwater technologies. The article quotes Hambling directly on two occasions to frame the context of the emerging underwater drone technology.
Drone technology a threat to Trident submarines, MPs to be told
David Connett has written an article for the Independant based on the BASIC briefing published on underwater drone technologies. Both BASIC and Paul Ingram are both referenced in the article, which discusses how emerging drone technology is likely to render Trident useless by the time it is to be deployed into service.