United Kingdom

Britain Discloses Size of Nuclear Stockpile: Who’s Next? May 26, 2010

Britain says it has 225 nuclear warheads for its Trident submarine fleet. . By Hans M. Kristensen…

Estimated Nuclear Weapons Locations 2009 November 25, 2009

Some 23,300 nuclear weapons are stored at 111 locations around the world (click for map)…

Russian Tactical Nuclear Weapons March 25, 2009

New low-yield nuclear warheads for cruise missiles on Russia’s submarines?. . By Hans M. Kristensen Two recent…

U.S. Strategic Submarine Patrols Continue at Near Cold War Tempo March 16, 2009

U.S. ballistic missile submarines conducted 31 nuclear deterrent patrols in 2008 at an operational tempo comparable to that of the Cold War.

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Withdrawn From the United Kingdom June 26, 2008

More than 100 U.S. nuclear bombs have been withdrawn from RAF Lakenheath, the forward base of the U.S. Air Force 48th Fighter Wing. Image:…

Another Foot and Mouth Disease case in the UK September 12, 2007

The the Institute for Animal Health has confirmed a positive test for foot-and-mouth in Surrey, just outside London. The latest report that I could find indicated that they had…

Uranium spill hidden from public because of NRC policy August 23, 2007

A very disturbing report in yesterday’s Guardian details how the Nuclear Regulatory Commission sealed records for two companies that manufacture and store highly enriched uranium in 2004. This was…

Nuclear Arms Racing in the Post-Cold War Era: Who is the Smallest? August 22, 2007

China and the Uniked Kingdom have started a new arms race over who has the smallest nuclear weapons arsenal.

Update on UK Foot and Mouth Disease Outbreak August 10, 2007

Most Strategic Security Blog readers are probably already aware of the recent outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in the UK, but I thought it might be useful to post summary information on what we know to date. In short, it appears as if the virus was found on two farms, that the likely source of the virus was a research and vaccine production facility located nearby, and that there will be hell to pay if it is determined that someone at that facility is responsible for the outbreak and subsequent shut down of beef exports from the UK. The good news is that the response to this outbreak was vastly improved from a 2001 outbreak, which resulted in close to 7 million animals being destroyed. The bad news is that it was probably released from a laboratory and will no doubt spark new concerns about animal disease research. Details: An out break of FMD was confirmed on August 3rd on a farm in Surrey, according to the British Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). A second case was found at a nearby farm, but tests at two other farms were negative. The owner of the Woolford Farm, where the first disease outbreak was found, reported symptoms to his veterinarian and then DEFRA on the 2nd. DEFRA said in a statement that the strain is a 01 BFS67-like virus, isolated in the 1967 FMD outbreak in the UK. That strain was being used this past July for vaccine production at a nearby facility run by Merial Animal Health, which is jointly owned by Merck and French pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis.

Small Fuze – Big Effect March 14, 2007

“It is not true,” British Defence Secretary Des Browne insisted during an interview with BBC radio, that a new fuze planned for British nuclear warheads and reported…