{"id":5008,"date":"2020-04-02T16:16:01","date_gmt":"2020-04-02T15:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/law-news\/?p=5008"},"modified":"2020-05-26T08:43:07","modified_gmt":"2020-05-26T07:43:07","slug":"kent-professor-questions-continuous-at-sea-deterrent-as-costs-of-covid-19-spiral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/law-news\/kent-professor-questions-continuous-at-sea-deterrent-as-costs-of-covid-19-spiral\/","title":{"rendered":"Kent Professor questions \u2018Continuous at Sea Deterrent\u2019 as costs of Covid-19 spiral\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kent Law School Professor Nick Grief is among a group of signatories to a letter sent to all MPs, questioning whether the UK\u2019s Trident nuclear weapon system should remain on \u2018Continuous at Sea Deterrent patrol\u2019 as the costs of COVID-19 spiral.<\/p>\n

Other signatories include three former Royal Navy Commanders, Ian\u00a0<\/span>Blackford<\/span>\u00a0MP,\u00a0a member of the House of Lords,\u00a0academics and peace campaigners. The letter has been circulated to MPs, MSPs, Welsh and Northern Irish AMs by the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation (an organisation established in 1963 by Earl Russell to continue his work for peace, human rights and social justice.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Commander Robert Forsyth RN (<\/span>Ret\u2019d<\/span>), a former nuclear submariner who served as\u00a02nd\u00a0in Command\u00a0aboard\u00a0Polaris\u00a0nuclear armed\u00a0submarines, and a signatory to the letter, said:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u2018It is completely unacceptable that\u00a0the\u00a0<\/span>UK continues to spend billions of pounds on deploying and modernising the Trident Nuclear Weapon System when faced with the threats to health, climate change and world economies that Coronavirus poses.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

All the signatories to the letter (the text of which is copied below) hope that their efforts to question the nuclear \u2018Continuous At Sea Deterrent\u2019 will encourage politicians and the wider public to begin to question the morality and the feasibility of nuclear weaponry.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Professor Grief<\/a>\u00a0specialises in international law and human rights. He teaches Public International Law and EU Law at Kent Law School and practises at the Bar from Doughty Street Chambers.<\/p>\n

\n

Text of letter:<\/p>\n

RE: Covid-19 and Continuous At Sea Deterrent\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The increasing cost of Coronavirus will require decades to recover. Meanwhile, the UK\u2019s Trident nuclear weapon system remains on Continuous At Sea Deterrent patrol costing some \u00a32 billion a year and using scarce military assets to protect the on-patrol submarine.\u202f This is despite Trident missiles having been de-targeted since\u00a0<\/span>1994\u202fand stood down at \u2018several days\u2019 notice to fire (HMG website) since 1998. Furthermore, recent public statements by the Chairs of the Defence Select and Public Accounts Committees advise that two out of\u202f four Vanguard class submarines that carry Trident missiles have been unavailable for more than a year, placing what must be considerable strain on the remaining two (normally three) submarine crews now having to carry out patrols of up to four months at a time. The morale of the submarine crew on patrol, understandably worried about their families at home and knowing their weapon system is stood down, must be a concern, as is their own state of health and exposure to the virus.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In these circumstances, and lacking any foreseeable threat of a \u2018bolt from the blue\u2019 nuclear weapon attack on the UK, is it appropriate for the Government to continue spending billions of pounds on Continuous at Sea\u00a0Deterrent, as well as building new nuclear warheads and the submarines to carry them?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yours sincerely,\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n