It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
(visit the link for the full news article)
London, England (CNN) -- Britain has a total nuclear arsenal of fewer than 225 weapons, with 160 currently operational, Foreign Secretary William Hague said Wednesday.
"We believe that the time is now right to be more open about the weapons we hold," Hague said in a statement to Parliament.
"We judge that this will assist in building a climate of trust between nuclear and non-nuclear weapons states and contribute, therefore, to future efforts to reduce the number of nuclear weapons worldwide."
Originally posted by tothetenthpower
Will other countries follow suite? OR will this be seen as a weakness by rival countries of the UK?
The British disclosure follows similar recent announcements by France and the United States, the other nuclear-armed Western allies. Britain had previously disclosed that it had 160 operational warheads, which since 1998 have been based aboard a squadron of four ballistic missile submarines.
In May, the United States announced its stockpile of nuclear weapons numbers 5,113. In April, Washington decided to swear off the development of new generations of nuclear weapons and announced it would not use its existing warheads to attack non-nuclear states that are in compliance with nonproliferation agreements.
Originally posted by john124
Still, 160 is a piddly figure compared to US & Russia's totals adding up to over 10000. Israel probably has more nukes operational than the UK.
We have just enough to take care of business, if needed.
[edit on 26-5-2010 by john124]
Originally posted by RedGolem
225 Is still enough to destroy most of the population of the planet. I see this as more of a MAD threat to the other countries of the world.
Also one must never forget the statements made in public are often very different from what is made behind closed doors.