The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament condemns the government’s plans to pour billions more into deadly nuclear weapons production.
Its announcement that it plans to build up to 12 nuclear-powered submarines, as part of the AUKUS Treaty with the US and Australia, will increase tensions as an already volatile situation is developing in the Asia-Pacific.
This Treaty drives nuclear proliferation and breaches the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This is because it facilitates the sharing of nuclear technology with Australia, a non-nuclear weapons state.
Similarly, at a time of escalating dangers in Ukraine, the government’s decision to attempt to secure nuclear-capable F35A fighter jets from the US is utterly reckless and risks this conflict again escalating to the brink of nuclear war – as we saw in November last year.
These fighter jets have been designed to launch satellite-guided B61-12 nuclear bombs, designed to be used ‘on the battlefield’. The destructive power of these bombs range from 0.3 kilotons to 50 kilotons. The ‘smallest’ bomb could kill about 4,000 people, the largest over 600,000. All release deadly radioactive fall-out.
Launching a nuclear bomb on the battlefield – whatever its size – is nuclear war. It risks killing thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people. It would give thousands more generational cancers from radiation poisoning. And it would poison and devastate the environment.
If the deal goes ahead, it means Britain will be paying for US jets, loaded with US nuclear weapons, directed, targeted and controlled by US-led NATO command, stationed at a US airbase where Britain has almost no jurisdiction. This has nothing to do with the security interests of British people. The majority of the population – 61% – oppose US nuclear weapons being stationed here. Instead it has everything to do with Britain helping the US prepare to carry out a nuclear war.
These announcements show the disastrous direction that the British government is taking. It is attempting to expand its nuclear delivery systems to both sea- and air-launched, in its preparation for “war-fighting readiness”. Far from preventing war, these actions only accelerate the drive towards such a war, which threatens to go nuclear.
Instead, the government should be shifting towards a significantly demilitarised defence strategy that is focused on human security and common security – prioritising diplomacy, global cooperation, conflict prevention.
This means redirecting spending into tackling the scourge of rising poverty – both in Britain and globally – rebuilding public services like health and education, and meeting international obligations on climate action. Spending in these areas have greater job multiplier outcomes than on military spending – as outlined in the recently published Alternative Defence Review supported by CND.
CND General Secretary Sophie Bolt said:
“This government seems intent on worsening the crises that we face. Increasing nuclear threats does not make us safer and drives climate chaos. It channels hundreds of billions of public funds into arms companies and their shareholders’ pockets, whilst populations living in places like Barrow that make these nuclear weapons continue to live in poverty and deprivation. It is absolutely urgent that voices calling for a halt to this reckless war drive are heard.”
ENDS
Image credit: Lauren Hurley / No 10 Downing Street / Flickr