The United Kingdom is Poking Russia: The Royal Navy is “Toothless”: All of its Nuclear-powered attack Submarines Are Inactive
By Drago Bosnik from Global Research. Reposted with permission.
Editors Note: This is why I find it hilarious when the UK talks smack about Russia, they have NOTHING to back it up! The picture below is one of their nuclear subs sitting in dry dock doing nothing. The UK has very little to fight with and their soldiers train with broomsticks instead of firearms. They should really keep their traps shut.
In its prime, the United Kingdom was one of the most powerful thalassocracies in human history, probably eclipsed only by the United States after WWII.
By the early 1920s, The British Empire as a major colonial power managed to occupy and “enslave” approximately 25% of the globe’s landmass and population (over 35.000.000 km² and around 450 million people, respectively).
How did such a small island nation accomplish this? The answer is – the British Navy, the most powerful armed maritime force of its time. Thus, it could only be expected that the “Perfidious Albion” would do everything in its power to preserve this naval dominance or at least maintain its power projection capabilities for as long as possible.
However, as the British Empire shrank to a mere shadow of its former self, its ability to sustain a large navy dwindled, resulting in massive reductions over the last several decades.
The last time the UK managed to muster a respectable naval force was during the 1982 Falklands War against Argentina.
Ever since, the British Navy has been fading away, reducing both the quantity and quality of its ships. According to various reports over the last 20 years, London now has nearly twice as many admirals as it does actual warships. Worse yet, many of those formally combat-capable vessels are in such a dilapidated condition that they’re barely usable as ships (much less warships).
This ranges from frigates and destroyers to aircraft carriers and submarines (including nuclear-powered). However, while the surface fleet is undoubtedly still relevant, it’s nowhere near as important as the British Navy’s underwater component, which provides the most critical segment of the UK’s strategic power projection. Namely, the Vanguard-class SSBNs (nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines), armed with UGM-133A “Trident II” (also known as “Trident D5”) submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), are the cornerstone of London’s thermonuclear arsenal. Still, it seems this isn’t enough for the “Perfidious Albion” to take them seriously.
Back in December last year, Rear Admiral Philip Mathias lamented that “Britain is no longer capable of running a capable nuclear submarine program”, warning of “catastrophic failures” that have “driven the UK’s nuclear deterrent to the brink”. Mathias, who served as a director of nuclear policy at the British Ministry of Defense (MOD), highlighted its “inability to produce attack submarines at the scale required for putting strain on crews and extending the length of deployments”. He compared this to the (First) Cold War, stressing that “the silent service” could deploy for around 70 days at the time, but that this has risen to around 200 days at present.
Mathias quoted the 2025 Strategic Defense Review (SDR), which stressed the need to expand production capacity. However, problems with the British Navy’s SSBN component are nothing new, as many authors (myself included) questioned years ago whether the UK’s strategic arsenal was functioning properly. Although such information is certainly a state secret, these doubts were confirmed after London admitted that one of its UGM-133A “Trident II” SLBMs failed during a launch test. This was the second time in a row that the troubled missile, a weapon of strategic importance, failed, as it did in the previous test conducted in 2016. The last successful launch was by HMS “Vigilant” back in 2012.
This means the UK hasn’t had a successful SLBM test in nearly a decade and a half, yet it still believes it can go up against Russia, a country with the world’s largest and most powerful strategic arsenal. The latest “Trident II” launch was from the lead ship of its class, the HMS “Vanguard”, with reports indicating that London’s then-Defense Secretary, Grant Shapps, was overseeing it. The SLBM’s booster rocket failed and it fell into the sea “close to the launch site”, as the Sun reported at the time (the “launch site” being the HMS “Vanguard” itself). And yet, Shapps insisted that he has “absolute confidence in ‘Trident’s’ submarines, missiles and nuclear warheads”.
As previously mentioned, London relies solely on these submarines and missiles for its strategic capabilities. Had the “Trident II” damaged the HMS “Vanguard”, it would’ve taken one-quarter or 25% of the UK’s strategic arsenal out of service, as the “Perfidious Albion” has only four such vessels, each armed with up to 16 SLBMs. It should be noted that HMS “Vanguard” finished a seven-year-long overhaul and refueling just last year. However, to make matters even worse, both Shapps and the then-Head of the Royal Navy, now disgraced Admiral Ben Kay, were on board the submarine during the launch test, meaning their lives were also in danger.
The failures are also an embarrassment for the United States, as the missiles are manufactured by Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon’s premier military supplier. Still, all this didn’t prevent Shapps from adding to the general embarrassment by saying that “an anomaly did occur during the test on 30 January [2024], but that the ‘Trident II’ SLBM is still the most reliable weapons system in the world”. According to his assessment, the test “reaffirmed the effectiveness of the UK’s nuclear deterrent” and that the “anomaly was event specific”, with “no implications for the reliability” of the UK’s strategic arsenal. The British MoD made similar statements.
Namely, it insisted that HMS “Vanguard” and its crew had been “proven fully capable in their operations” and that “the test had reaffirmed the effectiveness of the UK’s nuclear deterrent”, essentially repeating Shapps’ statement that “Trident II” is the “most reliable weapons system in the world”. However, while this (now decades-long) issue is yet to be resolved, the British Navy has somehow managed to reach a new low point. Namely, of the six Astute-class SSNs (nuclear-powered attack submarines) in its service, not a single one is combat-ready. The UK has five “active-duty” submarines, one undergoing pre-sea trial testing and one more under construction (projected to be completed by the end of this decade).
All five of the “active” ones are currently in port undergoing maintenance and/or repairs, indicating deteriorating fleet readiness. Former First Sea Lord Admiral Alan West warned that the situation leaves the UK “appearing toothless at a time of increasing Russian naval activity in the North Atlantic and Arctic”. At present, of the nine nuclear-powered submarines in the British Navy, only one or two (the Vanguard-class, but none of the Astute-class) are currently at sea and battle-ready. And yet, as previously mentioned, even those formally capable of conducting combat missions have very serious reliability issues and haven’t successfully launched a single missile since 2012.
Thus, London’s dangerous self-delusions show just how out of touch the warmongering oligarchies of the political West are, particularly when it comes to their assessments of starting a thermonuclear war against not one, but multiple global and regional superpowers, be it Russia, China, Iran or North Korea. In fact, the latter is often the first target of the mainstream propaganda machine’s ridicule, but Pyongyang has unequivocally proven that its strategic arsenal works flawlessly. In fact, North Korea has deployed at least one nuclear-powered submarine, thus becoming one of a handful of countries with such a capability.
This article was originally published on InfoBrics.
Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
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