LONDON, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- Three senior British military officers said Friday the money to be used replacing Trident nuclear submarines could be better spent elsewhere.
In a letter to The Times of London, Field Marshal Edwin Baron Bramall, who served as chief of the defense staff from 1982 to 1985, Gen. David Baron Ramsbotham, who spent 40 years in the Army and retired in 1993, and Gen. Sir Hugh Beach argued that Britain no longer has a completely independent nuclear deterrent. They said the country's nuclear missiles do not give it more clout internationally.
"Nuclear weapons have shown themselves to be completely useless as a deterrent to the threats and scale of violence we currently face or are likely to face, particularly international terrorism," they said. "Our independent deterrent has become virtually irrelevant, except in the context of domestic politics."
Replacing the Trident is expected to cost 20 billion pounds ($30 billion). The three soldiers said it would make more sense to use the money for conventional weapons.
