Trident Replacement

This question came up in the leader's debate, can we really afford the £20 billion to replace the Trident nuclear deterrent.

It would be a tough thing to give up, and maybe there are some halfway houses of having nuclear capable subs, but maybe with a more useful conventional role like cruise missiles. Allow conversion in times of world ending gravity.

I thought this might be a subject Lewis Page will have written on, but he's found a much better target - the third tranche of the useless Eurofighter:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/15/eurofighter_tranche_3/

So the usual thing of BAE promising to cut hi-tech jobs, if the deal is not signed. Now there is an equivalent amount of money sitting there...