Seizing the Initiative: Strengthening the United Kingdom’s Nuclear Signalling Capabilities

This paper argues that the UK’s existing deterrence posture, based on its Trident-armed submarines and continuous at sea deterrence, largely avoids the task of nuclear signalling. The return to the DCA will change this. This paper examines what nuclear signalling is and sets out the relationship between signalling and targeting, providing a typology of different types of signalling with a range of historical examples. It then offers a series of suggestions to revive the practice of nuclear signalling in the UK, and options to strengthen the UK’s signalling and deterrence capabilities in a crisis.