National Strategy and Multilateral Priorities: British ‘Tactical’ Nuclear Operations, 1970–1974

Abstract

When Heath’s Conservative government entered office in mid-1970, it did so three years after the decision of the preceding Wilson government to withdraw from all British military bases east of Suez by the mid-1970s. Denis Healey, Wilson’s Defence Secretary, had been engaged during this period in restructuring the nuclear roles of all three services. The strategic deterrent role had passed from the RAF to the Royal Navy’s (RN) submarine branch, while the tactical roles of the UK’s 10kt nuclear bombs deployed by both services was undergoing a major evolution. At a technical level, the first-generation Red Beard bombs were being replaced by new, lighter, multi-purpose second-generation WE-177A weapons, whose production had started in 1969. Geographically, the Red Beards were no longer to be permanently stored in Tengeh in Singapore, and they were not replaced or carried by aircraft carriers operating east of Suez; for the first time, they were to be stored in West Germany. In short, British military strategy was henceforth to focus its nuclear forces on being a European state, rather than a global imperial state, a decision which the incoming government largely accepted and moved forward.