A nuclear missile convoy carrying up to six deadly warheads is spotted on a motorway in Glasgow
A military convoy was spotted carrying up to six nuclear warheads heading along the highway through Glasgow towards an arms depot on Friday.
The convoy was seen just a mile south of Glasgow city centre, heading towards Royal Naval Armaments Depot Coulport on Loch Long, according to NukeWatch, an organization that tracks and monitors convoys that carry Britain’s Trident nuclear warheads.
The weapons of mass destruction were a ‘reminder of the UK’s contribution to nuclear terror’, the group said, amid growing tensions between NATO and Russia – which recently decommissioned its own nuclear weapons high alert.
A convoy of vehicles carrying nuclear warheads has been spotted near Glasgow carrying up to six nukes less than half a mile from the city center
The nuclear-armed convoy crossed the Erskine Bridge, heading along the M6 motorway near Kendal, before being spotted on the M74 at Lesmahagow and arriving at Loch Long at around 11.30pm on Friday.
The nuclear weapons were probably moved to be reconstituted. The route is common for the movement of nuclear warheads, but it comes at a time when the risk of nuclear war between NATO and Russia is heightened following the February 24 invasion of Ukraine.
The route is common for British defense vehicles, where Trident nuclear warheads were also spotted in May 2021, according to Glasgow Live.
The nuclear convoy crossed the Erskine Bridge, heading along the M6 motorway near Kendal, before being spotted on the M74 at Lesmahagow and arriving at Loch Long at around 11.30pm on Saturday.
“I think there were four warhead carriers, I believe. Our calculation is that each of these lorries can carry two, but one of the lorries is empty if it breaks down,’ said Nukewatch UK campaigner Jane Tallents.
“So if there are four, we would expect there to be six warheads, or up to six warheads anyway.”
NukeWatch said the timing was “alarming” given Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, but added that the transport of nuclear weapons along the route was “routine”.
“There hasn’t been one since October last year, which is a bit strange. But there was a bit of a stir at the end,” Tallents said. ‘There must be some reasoning in their madness but they’ll never enlighten us [as to] what it is.’
Nukewatch said the purpose of the nuclear move was likely a refurbishment, not an attempt to arm the warheads in anticipation of a Russian attack.
“I don’t think this convoy is of more concern than the fact that we are still, 24/7, armed and ready to start a nuclear war,” Tallents said, later adding, “All things that some of us have been constantly worrying about since the 60’s, they are really coming true.People have forgotten about it but they are there.
The nuclear scouting comes at a time when nuclear missiles in Russia have been put on high alert after Vladimir Putin’s stalled invasion of Ukraine, sparking a war that analysts fear will bring nuclear powers from the NATO like the UK to clash with the Kremlin.
Just five days ago, the UK Ministry of Defense launched an advert for a £40,000-a-year chief to oversee the threat of nuclear warheads, calling the current geopolitical climate “genuinely exciting times”.
The £40,000-a-year role with the Defense Nuclear Organization focused on mitigating ‘threats across the nuclear spectrum’.
According to the publication on the Gov.uk website, the DNO oversees “all aspects of nuclear activities within the MoD”, including submarines, nuclear warheads and “day-to-day nuclear policy”.
The Royal Naval Armament Depot Coulport is the site of a nuclear near miss involving a rare traffic accident in April 1973, according to the Secretary of State for Defence.
Near the Coulport site in April 1973, a Scottish Electricity Board Land Rover reversed into an RAF nuclear weapons carrier carrying nuclear warheads.
The vehicle contained UGM-27 Polaris missiles, each missile capable of delivering three ET.317 thermonuclear warheads
The crash damaged the load carrier, but the nukes were reported unharmed.
In another incident at the same site, a Polaris missile fell while being lifted during a realignment in 1977.
On the M8 near Glasgow in August 1983, an RAF nuclear weapons carrier moving two warheads crashed into a private car.
In another near miss, the British submarine HMS Vanguard collided with a French nuclear submarine in 2009, damaging ships, but with no reported leak of radioactivity.
There have been seven accidents involving British nuclear weapons in total since 1966. None have yet resulted in radioactive leaks.
The British submarine HMS Vanguard (pictured) crashed into a French nuclear submarine in the Atlantic Ocean on February 16, 2009
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