The drive to war accelerates

The government will buy at least 12 US nuclear-capable F-35A fighter jets. Announced on 24 June, these jets will carry US tactical B61-12 nuclear bombs that are designed to be used on the battlefield.

Escalation

This is a serious escalation in Britain’s nuclear capability, taken without parliamentary debate or public discussion; no sign of a rebellion by Labour MPs on this.

The precise cost of these jets has not been specified but certainly runs into hundreds of millions, so means much less money for any aspect of health or welfare. It is also a breach of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty of which the UK is a signatory. A government website still claims that “The UK has led by example on nuclear disarmament”.

Aircraft carrier

In an accompanying press release Starmer said that “….my government is investing in national security”. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our taxes are to be used to pay for US aircraft carrying nuclear warheads which can only be used on US authorisation.

Justin Bronk of the defence think-tank the Royal United Services Institute said the US would control their release and use in the event of a war. Britain will be a fixed US aircraft carrier in the Atlantic. Far from investing in national security, it is a decision that will make us, armed with nuclear warheads, a target. 

This decision on arms expenditure follows the publication of the National Security Strategy which posits a defence dividend that would renew industrial communities in Britain. In the foreword Starmer claims, “… we can unite society behind a simple argument that economic security is national security”.

“The jobs benefit from new F 35 orders is negligible.”

Speaking in the Hague ahead of a NATO summit, defence secretary Healey said the decision to purchase the jets would support 20,000 jobs and more than 100 companies across the UK in the supply chain.The general secretary of Unite responded angrily, saying “The UK jobs benefit from new F 35 orders is negligible”.

Unite point out that only around 3 per cent of the F-35 is actually built in the UK, contrary to the 15 per cent claimed by the government. This 15 per cent figure includes the single most expensive sub-system on the F-35, the electronic warfare/self-protection system built in Nashua, New Hampshire, by BAE Systems – so it is US-built, by US workers, paying corporation and income taxes to the US Treasury, and controlled by the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations.

Also included in the 15 per cent figure is the Rolls-Royce Lift Fan for the F-35B, which is built in Indianapolis, Indiana – again, jobs in the US, taxes in the US, technology in the US. The government claim that war is the key to our economic security falls at the first hurdle. 

Escalation

Unite were happy to challenge the government’s facts about the manufacture of the F-35A, but did not question the escalation towards war. In this first year of Starmer’s government the drums of war beat ever louder. Young people are advised to think about themselves as “the pre-war generation”.

The Strategic Defence Review asks us all to put ourselves on a war footing. According to a survey published in The Times in February young people would refuse to fight in a war. Will they allow the government to start one in their name?

• This article was amended on 7 July with minor changes in layout.