Financial Times Blog: BAE gets funds to start building new submarines
In this week I have read an article online through the Financial Times' website on how the government have released a £1.3 billion plan for the first initial stage of the "Successor Nuclear Deterrent Programme." This basically is a £1.3 billion contract which has been awarded to BAE Systems who will be starting the new manufacturing work on a new class of submarines. Now since we are supposedly in times of cut backs the government will set a budget of a whopping £41 billion, for the building of these 4 new Royal Navy submarines.
The main focal point of this article which concerns me is the dispute it is currently causing in the labour camp, this is mainly due to the anti-nuclear campaigner Jeremy Corbon, who also happens to be the leader of the Labour Party. In a time where we are set to be moving away from nuclear weapons the Defence Secretary Michael Fallon stated "We cannot know what new dangers we might face in the 2030s, 2040s and 2050s so we are acting now to replace them." showing to me a blatant divide in the camp. The other main issue in my eyes is where else this money could be spent.
I believe that when looking at this particular area there are a few issues which can be contradicted in multiple ways, firstly I totally agree that the U.K needs to have some form of military protection because obviously without it we would be totally defenceless and open to invasion, nuclear weapons haven't been discussed as an issue for over 50 years yet somehow they have remained a hidden agenda which is rarely spoken about. The use of nuclear weapons by countries in the far east has caused Britain and her allies to fight against the regimes which own them, yet I'm just a tad confused as we are sat developing ours and actually investing heavily in nuclear warfare through the manufacturing of these new submarines.
I also feel that due to the vast amount of money which is being used to develop these weapons- because ultimately that's what they are, this funding could be used for other areas which the government has actually neglected, areas such as the NHS, public sector workers or a revamp of the education system could all be potential candidates for the excessive money which is being thrown around here. (With my mam working as a Nurse and my dad as a Civil Servant, you could say I'm not necessarily all for this decision.)
However BAE systems are contributing something worthwhile to the economy as it is estimated that by the early 2020's BAE Systems will employ some 5000 workers across the MoD, this total will rise to 7,800 new jobs as the development of the programme continues, but the real question on my mind is "will it all be worth it?" I feel that with the political might of Russia and conflict in the middle east, all of this could be coming at the wrong time, potentially provoking some countries into an armed response.
When looking in the grand scale of things this revamp of the nuclear programme was always going to happen, with the world we live in today developing and evolving more and more, we as a nation have to keep up with these constant changes. This is backed up by other outside factors such as Brexit and the way other countries act politically and actively (not mentioning any names *cough cough* Russia). Brexit now means that the U.K has independence from Europe and can now follow its own protocol when it comes to military action, the Successor programme will allow us to adequately defend ourselves against Russia alongside other countries who the rest of Europe all seem to fear.
Overall I can see the reasoning behind this new programme, however I can also see the problems it may cause at home and around the world. Ultimately it will defend our nation and provide safety for the people of Britain, however it could also cause unrest with other nations, along with people in the U.K. Knowing 6% of the budget is being spent on just 4 submarines may not go down too well with everyone. Let me know how you feel about this topic below.
https://www.ft.com/content/594fdcd2-87ce-11e6-8aa5-f79f5696c731
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