US Releases Trident UK Nuclear Secrets

The UK's Telegraph reports a Wikileak cable showing that the United States gave to Russia nuclear warhead secrets involving British Trident missile inventory. While many in Britain are in an uproar, the whole point is moot.

According to the UK Telegraph, President Obama is to meet with Russian officials next week to give them information about every Trident missile the US supplies to the UK. This, to get the Russians to buy into the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).

"A series of classified messages sent to Washington by US negotiators show how information on Britain’s nuclear capability was crucial to securing Russia’s support for the “New START” deal.

Although the treaty was not supposed to have any impact on Britain, the leaked cables show that Russia used the talks to demand more information about the UK’s Trident missiles, which are manufactured and maintained in the US."

First off, in the original article, there has been no evidence of any Wikileak cable cited from The Telegraph pointing at this exact cable. Second, I believe the authors of this article are missing the point - the bigger picture.

Update: After I questioned the validity of their article for 3 hours, The Telegraph updated it to point to the actual Wikileak document to provide more context. Frankly, these are not secrets. These are simply a discussion between the US and Russia over arms agreement.

The goal of the new START Treaty is to disclose and reduce the number of nuclear arms by 50% between the US and Russia. It requires that the number of nuclear missiles be limited to no more than 1550 by 2018 and reduce the number of long range missiles and bombers to 700.

Since the original START Treaty began in 1991, the number of nuclear warheads have been reduced by 66%. Is that not a good thing and progress in the right direction? You bet it is.

This Wednesday, President Obama signed the New START Treaty ratifying it for the United States. Secretary Hillary Clinton will meet with Sergei Lavrov to exchange the documents in this historic event Saturday. This is wonderful news for Soviet and US relations. It also is great news for the world.

However, the mood in Britain from Telegraph readers didn't go over so well. This article presently got over 1500 comments - one of the biggest I've seen on a Telegraph article in a while. The UK readership claim the US "sold out" Britain to get the START Treaty signed. But so what. Do the math and look at the logistics here.

There are four British Vanguard submarines roaming the waters. Each has the capacity to carry up to 16 Trident missiles per sub. Each missile has up to 10 warheads. Letting the Russians know how many Trident missiles are in inventory isn't really a secret. You have to assume that the maximum case of all 64 missiles (640 warheads) can be be deployed at any moment in time.

Whatever is stockpiled is a moot issue. Why?

It's not like they can magically reload another round of 64 missiles out of thin air. The subs have to head back to port to reload or meet with cargo ships somewhere in open waters. By then, time is wasted and countries are blown to pieces.

Now obviously Russia outnumbers the Brits in nuclear arms. The Russians could have hundreds of missiles up in the air all heading to the UK versus the smaller number of UK missiles. So one will obliterate one more than the other.

President Obama did the right thing for the world's benefit. Reducing nuclear arms to half of what they are in seven years is the goal. This does nothing to put the British people at risk at all. They are already out numbered and need international assistance anyway.

Releasing the number of UK Trident missiles to the Russians is not a secret nor anything of revelation. It's what maximum number of missiles can be carried and for which can be deployed at any instance in time.

What people are failing to see is that we are striving to remove the number of nuclear weapons in this world. If it means that the United States and Russia are to do so, it also means other countries to do so also - even Britain. Its about transparency and putting your best foot forward.

It would be wrong for the US or Russia to manufacture missiles for use by other countries and not include them in the count. That would be anything but ARMS reduction. It would be ARMS diversion.

About Kerry Kobashi

Kerry is the founder of KerryOnWorld. He lives in Silicon Valley and has worked as an engineer and project manager. He owns Kobashi Computing a consulting company.