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Without knowing anything about the arrangement, I would assume that as far as these matters are concerned, whoever controls the launch button effectively owns t
by t_mann 2y ago
Without knowing anything about the arrangement, I would assume that as far as these matters are concerned, whoever controls the launch button effectively owns the thing. Those things are made exactly for the kind of situations where treaties aren't enough.
- dragonwriter 2y agoIn the short term, that's true. If they can't independently maintain the weapons, it ceases to be true beyond the short term, though. OTOH, my understanding is that that is not a problem for the UK; they don't “essentially lease” their arsenal from the US; they use domestically developed and maintained warheads on purchased-from-the-US but locally-maintained Trident missiles carried by UK-built-and-maintained subs. They might have some uphill work if they wanted major delivery system upgrades, but their existing arsenal is, AFAIK, functionally independent of an ongoing dependence on the US.