Is Britain responsible enough to own nuclear submarines

Britain is “no longer capable” of running a nuclear submarine

programme after “catastrophic” failures pushed it to the brink, a
former Navy chief has warned. In an extraordinary critique, Rear Admiral
Philip Mathias said the UK’s “silent service” was facing an
“unprecedented” situation that it was “highly unlikely” to recover
from without a “radical” intervention. The former director of nuclear
policy at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said delays in building new attack
boats had reached record levels and had driven up the duration of patrols
for crews from 70 days during the Cold War to more than 200 now. This had
led to the “shockingly low availability” of submarines to “counter
the Russian threat in the North Atlantic”, the retired submarine
commander warned. The admiral, who led the Trident value for money review
in 2010, called for Britain to pull out of the multi-billion “Aukus”
defence deal with America and Australia to build 12 new nuclear submarines.
“The UK is no longer capable of managing a nuclear submarine
programme,” he said. “Dreadnought is late, Astute class submarine
delivery is getting later, there is a massive backlog in Astute class
maintenance and refitting, which continues to get worse, and SSN-Aukus is a
submarine which is not going to deliver what the UK or Australia needs in
terms of capability or timescale. “Performance across all aspects of the
programme continues to get worse in every dimension.” He added: “This
is an unprecedented situation in the nuclear submarine age. It is a
catastrophic failure of succession and leadership planning.” The Navy’s
fleet of Astute submarines is already facing significant problems, with
many having been stuck in port for years. Out of the seven planned, only
six are in service. He also criticised the role of industry giants for
delays to programmes. He added not a single of the UK’s 23 decommissioned
nuclear boats had been dismantled since the first, HMS Dreadnought, left
service in 1980. “This is an utter disgrace and brings into question
whether Britain is responsible enough to own nuclear submarines,” the
admiral said.

 Telegraph 6th Dec 2025 

 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12/06/britains-nuclear-submarine-fleet-no-longer-fit-for-purpose/