Interim Follow-Up on EU Bumper Sub Fiasco

Mar 19, 2009 - Reuters UK - Doubts raised over nuclear submarine plan

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Tuesday Britain was prepared to include its nuclear arsenal, the smallest of the five recognised nuclear weapons states, in multilateral arms control talks.

He said Britain had already cut its nuclear arsenal by half since 1997 to fewer than 160 warheads and could consider reducing them further as part of multilateral talks.

Now, the farfetched possibility M.E. mentioned over 30 days ago has gained another shred of plausibility:



What really happened is some very bad press has been generated for extremely costly nuclear missile submarine forces of 2 EU countries, both currently debating whether or not to fund their respective programs into the future. The bad press would likely have been intended to help political opponents of military spending in France and the U.K. kill the funding. Are there still other possibilities? Yes. If M.E. had to guess at this point, UK equipment failure would be high on the list.



Consider mutual agreement between France and the UK to conduct a low speed collision. Beyond the pale? In the current financial crisis, think of the money each country would save by abandoning boomer subs.



Now, standy for the verdicts on the French and British COs involved. M.E. predicted:

...both captains will either be exonerated or mildly censored.



Submarines are always silent and strange.