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From reading Peter Hennessy's Cabinet and Bomb it is pretty clear that if the US Administration
and Congress had not been at odds in 1971-4 Britain could have obtained Poseidons for its R class boats under similar terms to Polaris and Trident.
If the Conservatives had regained power in 1964 and kept HMS Ramillies, we can then see an RN
fleet equipped with 5 Polaris later Poseidon boats.
However, we would still have needed to build the V class and move to Trident D5 as happened in real life.
A national British SLBM was technically possible but as a memmorandum in the same book makes clear it would have eaten up a chunk of the Defence Budget similar to France's national deterrent.
In that case the RN and other services would have been leaner in terms of equipment-like the French Army and Navy.
and Congress had not been at odds in 1971-4 Britain could have obtained Poseidons for its R class boats under similar terms to Polaris and Trident.
If the Conservatives had regained power in 1964 and kept HMS Ramillies, we can then see an RN
fleet equipped with 5 Polaris later Poseidon boats.
However, we would still have needed to build the V class and move to Trident D5 as happened in real life.
A national British SLBM was technically possible but as a memmorandum in the same book makes clear it would have eaten up a chunk of the Defence Budget similar to France's national deterrent.
In that case the RN and other services would have been leaner in terms of equipment-like the French Army and Navy.
