by Joshua J. McElwee
The government of the United Kingdom is moving forward with plans to build new nuclear weapons armed submarines, the BBC reports today.
Approximately $4.8 million has already been appropriated for the program, and, if plans don't change in the interim, the country should have its first new nuclear armed vessel in 2028, said UK Defense Secretary Liam Fox.
The decision to move forward with the burgeoning of the UK's nuclear deterrent comes almost exactly one month after Edinburgh, Scotland Cardinal Keith O'Brien, head of the Scottish bishops' conference, called the country's nuclear weapons program "shameful."
Speaking during a 200-strong protest outside Faslane Naval Base, which is about 25 miles west of the city of Glasgow and is where the UK's trident submarines are based, O'Brien said April 16 that "it is not courageous of Britain to have these dreadful weapons of mass destruction. It is shameful to have them."
Said O'Brien: "If our Government wished to truly be courageous it would unilaterally give up its nuclear deterrent, giving the witness and impetus for other nations to do the same."
