Errr, you're possibly assuming that "Military competence" and "Labour politicians" are synonymous?
They're clearly trying to reduce the deterrent to keep the Old Guard (CND-ers) in Labour happy, throwing them a "Look, it's a bit like disarmament" bone, to avoid the political embarassment of only getting the vote through with Tory support, at the time when Labour will be electing a new leader.
In other words, it's a political calculation, obviously, nothing to do with strategy.
Or possibly I'm just being too cynical...? Nope, that's it.
As I recall, it was something like, at any given time:
- 1 sub in maintenance / refit
- 3 subs in rotation - one at sea, one in "warmup" and one in "cooldown".
They take a lot of time and care to maintain a nuclear sub properly. Which, I think we can all agree. is a Good Thing.
Worth a try, certainly.
Seriously, that's getting into the "is deterrence worthwhile / useful" area, which is a different discussion to "What's needed to provide effective deterrence". Which is 4 subs.
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