Nuclear weapon review 'nonsense'

Defence Secretary Liam Fox announced on Wednesday at a conference in London's Chatham House that the government could scale back Britain's fleet of Trident nuclear submarines from four to three.

But he added it would only be done if Britain could maintain its deterrence at sea and that a decision will not be made until 2014-15.

His comments followed a speech in which he made clear his intention of ensuring that Britain retains "a war-fighting edge" in the wake of this autumn's strategic defence and security review.

He ensured that Britain will continue to have "robust and well-equipped armed forces capable of intervening abroad where necessary to protect our security and interests at home."

But the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) argued that the review will ignore the question of whether nuclear weapons are necessary.

CND chairwoman Kate Hudson said: "Describing this as a 'value for money' review is nonsense - the fundamental question is whether Britain needs a cold war weapons system decades after that conflict ended.

"Major decisions on nuclear weapons must not be taken behind closed doors and only reported to MPs months later. Yet this is what the government appears to be proposing."

The MoD's £36 billion budget is expected to face cuts of 10 per cent or more in Chancellor George Osborne's spending review in October.

An average of 25 per cent will be cut from the bulk of Whitehall departments over the next four years.

Mr Osborne said the savings demanded from the MoD will be lower because of the "particular pressures" on defence.

SNP Westminster leader and defence spokeswoman Angus Robertson said scrapping Trident should be at the top of the list on the strategic defence review.

He added: "To claim Trident represents value for money is the economics of the madhouse.

"It cannot be right to proceed with its procurement while aiming to cut other conventional areas of defence spending at a time when our forces need support most."