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Inside Britain's largest nuclear weapons site - as scientists race to build a new warhead by the 2030s
Deborah Haynes ^ | Friday 20 June 2025

Posted on 06/20/2025 8:51:25 PM PDT by fluorescence

Surrounded by metal fences topped with barbed wire, much of the nuclear weapons facility at Aldermaston in Berkshire looks frozen in time from the 1950s rather than ready for war in the 21st century.

But a renewed focus on the importance of the UK's nuclear deterrent means the government is giving much of its nuclear infrastructure a facelift as it races to build a new warhead by the 2030s when the old stock goes out of service.

Sky News was among a group of news organisations given rare access to the largest of Britain's nuclear weapons locations run by AWE.

The acronym stands for Atomic Weapons Establishment - but a member of staff organising the visit told me that the public body, which is owned by the Ministry of Defence, no longer attributes the letters that make up its name to those words.

The workforce at AWE is expanding fast, with 1,500 new people joining over the past year.

The organisation has some 9,500 employees in total, including about 7,000 at Aldermaston, where the warhead is developed and its component parts are manufactured.

It means the new warhead, called Astrea, will not be detonated for real unless it is used.

The last time, Britain test-fired a bomb was at a facility in Nevada in the US in 1991.

With that no longer an option, the scientists at AWE must rely on old data and new technology...

[snip]the government is spending £15bn over the next four years alone on the programme to build the new warheads.

[snip] No one would say what will be different about the new bomb that is being developed here compared with the version that needs replacing.

One official simply said the incumbent stock has a finite design life and will need to be swapped out.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.sky.com ...


TOPICS: United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: aldermaston; awe; nuclearweapons; scientistsrace; uk
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1 posted on 06/20/2025 8:51:25 PM PDT by fluorescence
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To: fluorescence

No more nukes in muslim nations.


2 posted on 06/20/2025 8:53:37 PM PDT by JZelle
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To: fluorescence
UK leases their ICBMs from Lockheed Martin.

3 posted on 06/20/2025 8:57:58 PM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie ( O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is gracious, and His mercy endures forever. — Psalm 106)
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To: fluorescence

At the rate they are going the UK will be in a similar condition to Somalia by the 2030’s. Does the US have a plan to sequester their nuclear arsenal when the government collapses?


4 posted on 06/20/2025 8:59:47 PM PDT by EnderWiggin1970
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To: fluorescence

Let’s just give everybody’s nukes to the aliens. Ask them to take the Democrats too please.


5 posted on 06/20/2025 9:08:07 PM PDT by Kudsman (I am Coal baby! Burning for you. )
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To: fluorescence

England will be the next radical islamic nation that will have to eventually be de-nuclearized.


6 posted on 06/20/2025 9:42:03 PM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: fluorescence

Yes indeed...
By the 2030s, the rabid muslim horde will have completed the conquest of Britain, and those new weapons will be in their hands...


7 posted on 06/20/2025 9:53:00 PM PDT by SuperLuminal (Where is rabble-rising Sam Adams now that we need him? Is his name Trump, now?)
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To: fluorescence

I lived in the UK at the height of the Cold War in the late 70s. I was living in Winnersh Wokingham, Berkshire about 35 miles West of London. If war started I had the perfect plan due to my location which is as follows.
1. 17 miles west of Heathrow Airport.
2 15 miles South of High Wycomb USAF-RAF joint command.
3. 13 miles west of Aldermaston, the nuclear assembly and processing center for nuclear bombs.
4. Central London 35 miles.
5. USAF RAF Nuclear Cruise Missiles base Newbury 19 miles.

My plan was perfect. I would quickly go to my backyard with a triple shot of Glenfidich Scotch and one ice cube. I doubt I would have finished it before the greatest fireworks show in history killed me.


8 posted on 06/20/2025 10:22:50 PM PDT by cpdiii (cane cutter, deckhand, oilfield roughneck, drilling fluid tech, geologist, pilot, pharmacist ,MAGA)
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To: cpdiii
Your plan is/was indeed perfect.

For many years I had a similar one. Living in Upstate NY, we were well aware of of the Seneca Army Depot, where (it was widely believed although never officially confirmed) lots of nuclear warheads were stored in large bunkers. We figured that if an enemy decided to take out our resources, that would go up in a blaze of glory easily viewable from our home (albeit somewhat over the horizon).

But the depot was decommissioned about 25 years ago and cleaned out of the weapons, and then left alone to grow weeds and the famous Seneca White Deer.

Some of the bunkers have been repurposed by commercial outfits, and I have personally visited there. I completely believe that they were built to store nuclear weapons - the facilities are clearly of that caliber.

9 posted on 06/20/2025 10:41:12 PM PDT by dayglored (This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalms 118:24)
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To: JZelle

...............”No more nukes in muslim nations.”

That was my first thought too. Horrible what’s happened to merry old England, and they’re too stupid or afraid to send them back where they came from.


10 posted on 06/20/2025 11:24:01 PM PDT by Veto! (Trump Is Superman)
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To: fluorescence

We can’t let Britain build a nuke, it will fall into the hands of Pakistan. Bomb them immediately!


11 posted on 06/20/2025 11:43:29 PM PDT by Mr. Blond
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To: fluorescence

Britain is now a puny, impotent nation desperately needing US support to remain relevant, fkMI6.


12 posted on 06/21/2025 1:00:46 AM PDT by A strike (Make RealID required for voting )
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To: fluorescence

They don’t have to worry; France will protect them.


13 posted on 06/21/2025 1:18:50 AM PDT by Jeff Chandler (The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution.)
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To: Mr. Blond

When the British House of Commons and Lords begin calling for the destruction of America and Russian, I will echo your outrage. Deal?


14 posted on 06/21/2025 1:46:24 AM PDT by Kudsman (I am Coal baby! Burning for you. )
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To: JZelle

I came for this comment. Spot on.


15 posted on 06/21/2025 1:46:25 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: Kudsman

But we’re into pre-emptive action now. By then it will be too late!


16 posted on 06/21/2025 1:59:54 AM PDT by Mr. Blond
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To: fluorescence

So the muzzies will have a nuke in 5 years!


17 posted on 06/21/2025 4:19:42 AM PDT by Harpotoo (Being a socialist is a lot easier than saving to WORK of !US:-)p)
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To: fluorescence

Meanwhile, something to figure into the mix...

David Atherton
@DaveAtherton20

Keir Starmer has warned Donald Trump that homegrown & migrant terrorists in Britain will begin atrocities, if America attacks Iran.

Why are they here? Why are they not being arrested? Why are they not being deported?

Any dead victims, the blood is on your hands.
https://telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/06/19/britain-plea-to-trump-bombing-iran-puts-westerners-at-risk/

3:16 AM · Jun 20, 2025 192.4K Views

https://x.com/DaveAtherton20/status/1935959929799475707


18 posted on 06/21/2025 4:21:01 AM PDT by mewzilla (Swing away, Mr. President, swing away!)
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To: Harpotoo

To your point, see my reply #18.


19 posted on 06/21/2025 4:21:27 AM PDT by mewzilla (Swing away, Mr. President, swing away!)
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To: mewzilla
And this...

Half of London’s council houses occupied by people born overseas Forty-eight per cent of social housing in the capital has a foreign born head of household, costing £3.6bn a year

Bet it's not just in London...

20 posted on 06/21/2025 4:24:55 AM PDT by mewzilla (Swing away, Mr. President, swing away!)
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