UK nuclear warhead increase prompted by Russia’s missile defence capability

Britain’s controversial move to raise the cap on its nuclear warhead stockpile was motivated by the need to maintain a “credible” deterrent to counter Russia’s improved ballistic missile defences, the UK defence secretary has said.

Government ministers have so far been reluctant to explain the decision, announced last week as part of its defence, security and foreign policy review. But when challenged on the issue Ben Wallace, defence secretary, told the BBC on Sunday that his job in maintaining a credible deterrent was to “reflect and review what the Russians and others have been up to”.

He added: “In the past few years we have seen Russia invest strongly in ballistic missile defence . . . They have planned and deployed new capabilities and that means if we are going to remain credible, it has to do the job”.

Downing Street’s move to increase the ceiling on its stockpile by more than 40 per cent to 260 warheads prompted criticism from nuclear experts, who warned this would damage the UK’s consistent emphasis on disarmament since the end of the cold war.

Wallace insisted that despite the increase the UK would still have the “lowest” number of warheads among nuclear powers, pointing out that France has closer to 300. Whitehall officials said privately that the decision reflected wider concerns about nuclear proliferation by China and North Korea.

Speaking ahead of the announcement of restructuring of the UK armed forces on Monday, Wallace did not deny the review would involve a cut in army personnel numbers from a notional force of 82,000. “I’m going to make a decision to have the right armed forces to match our ambition, and to meet the threat,” he said.

Military officials have said the army would make greater use of its reserves to compensate for cuts to full-time soldiers, although these would take several months to deploy in the event of a serious conflict. Officials have also been clear that the army is evolving to prioritise “lethality” over size, using new technologies such as swarms of drones and situational awareness systems.

Cuts to equipment are expected to include the retirement of the Hercules transport aircraft, often used by special forces, and known as the workhorses of the Royal Air Force. The UK has operated earlier variants of the US-built aircraft since the mid-1950s and the 14 remaining aircraft had been due to keep flying until the mid-2030s. Their missions will be picked up by the RAF’s fleet of 20 larger A400M Atlas transport aircraft, according to people familiar with the plan.

The army’s 700-plus Warrior infantry fighting vehicles are also due to be phased out, according to two people familiar with the situation. Meanwhile, the introduction of the new Boxer, a different type of armoured vehicle, will be accelerated. A planned life-extension programme of the army’s main battle tank, the Challenger 2, is expected to be announced shortly after the publication of the review. 

Commenting on the expected cuts John Healey, Labour’s shadow defence secretary, warned that a reduction in troop numbers could seriously limit the army’s capacity to deploy overseas, support allies and maintain strong national defences and resilience.

“There’s a gulf between the government’s ambitions and its actions, which is set to grow with this new review,” Healey said.