It's just like owning a copy of Microsoft Windows. Every once in a while, you have to update or replace the equipment.
And so it goes with the UK nuclear deterrent.
We need to replace Trident. And of course that means buying some new stuff from our childish friends, the Americans.
Trident is currently deployed on 4 nuclear submarines. One is deployed, one is in maintenance, one is on standby, and one is held in reserve.
It's quite a robust and effective system.
The deployed submarine cruises around, cloaked in secrecy, ready to launch the nukes if the word is given.
Stranger still is why we need to replace it. After all, the "Star Wars Defence System" built by the USA is incapable of stopping a Trident ICBM strike anyway.
So it's still quite effective.
Come to think of it, the same applies to its predecessor, Polaris.
So why did we replace that ?
To buy some new equipment (subs and missiles) of our friends again.
But now we are really thinking.
The Avro Vulcan was a strategic nuclear bomber. That could deliver a nuke pretty effectively. After all, we flew one non-stop from Ascencion Island to the Falklands and back.
And doesn't the Vulcan look and feel like Concorde ?
Ogive Delta wing, large unshrouded Olympus engines.
Hmmm... maybe that's why old Richard Branson wasn't allowed to buy one. Perhaps the upside-down periscope (check the Concorde at Yeovilton) was WW2 bomb-sight instead of something to check ice on the wings.
A concorde loaded with a nuke, travelling at Mach 2+ at 50,000 feet is probably totally unstoppable.
Maybe we don't need Trident , Polaris or whatever we buy to replace it anyway.
And then maybe we wouldn't have to sell the London Stock Exchange.
Just a little thought.