Thursday, December 11, 2025

Ex-Royal Navy chief says UK has become a ‘failed nuclear nation’

Admiral Philip Matthias says Britain is incapable of maintaining its nuclear fleet

Britain’s nuclear submarine programme is in a state of “catastrophic failure,” according to retired Rear Admiral Philip Mathias, who says decades of mismanagement have left the UK effectively incapable of maintaining its fleet.

Writing in The Telegraph (UK), the former Ministry of Defence director of nuclear policy blasted repeated delays, shrinking budgets, and failures in personnel management that have produced what he called a “shockingly low” number of operational submarines able to meet national security demands.

Mathias argued that London should pull out of the AUKUS pact with the US and Australia, suggesting investment be redirected toward more cost-effective alternatives such as unmanned underwater vehicles and drones.

He pointed to significant setbacks in the Astute- and Dreadnought-class programs, noting that the newest boat, HMS Agamemnon, took more than 13 years to complete — the longest build time in Royal Navy history. His concerns echo those raised recently by top civil servant Simon Case, who told MPs that “decades of neglect” had left Britain “the world’s most embarrassed nuclear nation.”

Image credit: David Clode

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6 COMMENTS

      • Yes You are being extremely generous
        I wouldn’t give them that long
        One takeaway here though is that the outcome of any future nuclear war would come to to submarine based deterrents
        Land base wouldn’t stand a chance
        Like the US which would take at least five minutes to launch
        Might be why the POMS are squealing and lining up at the trough?

  1. Yeah, the UK morons keep “poking the bear”. The reality is war is not as viable as a tool for distracting the masses and making moolah, as it used to be in the West. Time to give peace and trade a go, assuming the UK establishment have any competence left, for either of these things.

  2. The UK is bankrupt.
    And probably has lost a lot of know how through delocalisations or simply loss of heavy industries. Like most of EU countries producing nothing.
    Finance / the City don t produce any goods. Only ” financial’ assets soon reduced to nothing

  3. Ex-Royal Navy chief says UK has become a ‘failed nuclear nation’
    https://www.rt.com/news/629220-british-navy-investment-atlantic/
    As stated the UK is bankrupt and headed for a very serious margin call
    Starmer has been left holding the baby DOA who came to power in a landslide victory albeit for the fact nobody went out to vote securing just 37% of the vote
    Attitudes may have changed if in fact the voting system is not corrupt and not seriously compromised

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