ABSTRACT
The United Kingdom-regardless of whether she has her own independent strategic nuclear arsenal-remains a vital North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) supply base, and geography dictates that she must always play the role of the unsinkable aircraft carrier floating off the coast of Europe. More than two decades of virtually neglecting defense have left British forces weakened and overstretched, although the United Kingdom is responsible for providing the vast majority of NATO's surface combatant forces in the eastern Atlantic and many of the destinations for seaborne transportation of material. One of the most serious naval threats to the United Kingdom is mine warfare. The growth of a viable Soviet amphibious warfare capability in the late 1970s has been a factor in the recent emphasis on the United Kingdom's home defense. The defense of the United Kingdom, like the Soviet naval threat against her, cannot be seen in isolation and cannot be divorced from the rest of the Western Alliance.
