Hello everyone welcome back to the history hit warfare podcast I'm your host James Rogers and in this

episode we're looking at Trident that multi-layered nuclear missile system that is said to act as a

deterrence posture for the United Kingdom. In essence the whole point of it

is to deter other nation states from sending nuclear missiles or attacking the UK. In theory, at least, but it's been in the UK.

In theory at least, but it's been in the news a lot recently.

The government of Boris Johnson has agreed to increase the amount of nuclear weapons

that the UK has by 40% and there's lots of domestic

considerations as well because if Scotland does secure a second referendum and chooses to leave

the UK, well then there's a bit of a dilemma about where the UK is going to keep its nuclear

missiles because so many of them are in Scotland and there doesn't seem to be an alternative.

Well it seemed like with all these issues going on it was about time that we got a

expert on Trident onto the podcast so I called up my old friend Nick Ritchie I used to work with him at

the University of York he is the UK's leading expert on Trident. He's

written the book on it. A Nuclear Weapons Free World, Britain, Trident and the

challenges ahead. And he takes us step by step through the history of Trident while the UK first got nuclear weapons

the technical aspects of those systems and yes those challenges that we face ahead

over the coming decades. So here he is Dr Nick Ritchie from the

University of York on Trident. I'm going to Hi Nick, thanks for coming on the Warfare Podcast. How are you doing?

I'll do very well, thanks James, and thank you for inviting me on to talk about the things that we're going to talk about.

Yeah, not a problem at all. Now you're a politics proff at the University of York.

Is term almost over there yet? Is it almost summer in York?

We are almost there. Yeah, the end is in sight after a difficult year dealing with the effects of COVID on how we teach and the effects on

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