That’s not actually correct. The missiles (the rocket part) are indeed leased from the US, and the maintenance every few years is thus done by them - which keeps the cost down. The warheads are the UKs.
A freshly serviced trident missile should be good for 5-7 years (although they currently get serviced more frequently).
If the UK falls out with the US then we have a number of years to either build our own replacement missile to put the warheads on or buy/lease a missile body off another country - France for example has several options in this space that could be easily adapted.
We are where we are because nobody could imagine the US going rogue like this, a failure of imagination for sure but our nukes are in fact in our control
That’s good to know, thanks for pointing that out. You’re certainly correct about a failure of imagination. Would be interesting to see the fallout if the UK tried to diversify its missile options.
That’s not actually correct. The missiles (the rocket part) are indeed leased from the US, and the maintenance every few years is thus done by them - which keeps the cost down. The warheads are the UKs.
A freshly serviced trident missile should be good for 5-7 years (although they currently get serviced more frequently).
If the UK falls out with the US then we have a number of years to either build our own replacement missile to put the warheads on or buy/lease a missile body off another country - France for example has several options in this space that could be easily adapted.
We are where we are because nobody could imagine the US going rogue like this, a failure of imagination for sure but our nukes are in fact in our control
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/heres-how-britains-nukes-are-operationally-independent/
https://www.chathamhouse.org/2025/03/uks-nuclear-deterrent-relies-us-support-there-are-no-other-easy-alternatives
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/no-america-doesnt-control-britains-nuclear-weapons/
Edit, tidied up the wording
That’s good to know, thanks for pointing that out. You’re certainly correct about a failure of imagination. Would be interesting to see the fallout if the UK tried to diversify its missile options.