VANGUARD CLASS SUBMARINES ENTER THE TWILIGHT ZONE

Embarking the Trident D5 ballistic missiles that form the United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent, the Vanguard class strategic submarines rely on secrecy and stealth to perform their unique mission. At the same time – whether seen as the ultimate guarantors of national sovereignty or as immoral weapons of mass destruction – the Trident missile-armed submarines are rarely far from the centre of any discussion on British defence policy. The Vanguard class of nuclear-powered ballistic missile-armed submarines (SSBNs) traces its origins to decisions taken by the Thatcher government of the early 1980s to adopt the US-built Trident missile as a replacement for the existing Polaris system then deployed by the Royal Navy.

Polaris had been acquired from the United States as a result of the 1962 Nassau agreement. It entered British service on board the quartet of Resolution class strategic submarines from the end of the 1960s. Within a decade, Polaris had largely been replaced by other strategic missiles in US Navy service.