A review of Britain's nuclear deterrent has concluded there are credible alternatives to a full renewal of the Trident system - despite a call from former defence secretaries for it to be safeguarded.
Liberal Democrat Cabinet minister Danny Alexander's long-awaited Trident Alternatives Review argues the case for a scaled-down Trident force.
Its proposals include reducing the Royal Navy's fleet of nuclear-armed submarines from four to three and an end to 24-hour patrols.
Mr Alexander said this would save around £4bn and be a "big step down the ladder" of nuclear disarmament and allow Britain to "move on from the Cold War", while keeping the country safe.
Mr Alexander has reviewed plans for the fleet "Trident is the last, unreformed bastion of Cold War thinking. Britain in the 21st century, almost a quarter of a century after the fall of the Berlin Wall, needs to think about nuclear deterrence and disarmament in a fresh way," he said.
But five former defence secretaries and two ex-defence chiefs have voiced their support for a £25bn like-for-like replacement of Trident.
"In an uncertain world, in which the number of nuclear weapons remains high and some states are increasing their holding, we should not take risks with our security by downgrading to a part-time deterrent," they wrote in a letter to the Daily Telegraph.
"We cannot possibly foresee what threats will develop over the next 30 years.
"Reducing our submarine-based Trident capability would weaken our national security for the sake of a very small fraction of the defence budget.
"It is our view that if Britain is to remain a leading global power with strong defences, nothing less than a continuous-at-sea deterrent will do."
The letter was signed by former Conservative defence secretaries Liam Fox and Sir Malcolm Rifkind, alongside Labour's former defence secretaries Bob Ainsworth, Lord Reid and Lord Robertson, who was also a Nato secretary general.
Other signatories were ex-chiefs of defence staff Lord Boyce and Lord Stirrup.
The current Defence Secretary says downgrading Trident would be 'reckless' Treasury Chief Secretary Mr Alexander's review follows a compromise reached by Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in the 2010 coalition agreement which brought them into government together.
The issue is likely to set a clear dividing line between the parties at the next general election.
The fleet of four Vanguard-class submarines which carry the Trident missiles are due to be replaced from 2028.
The final decision on whether to replace all four boats is due in 2016, after the 2015 election.
On Monday Defence Secretary Philip Hammond warned it would be "reckless" to downgrade Trident, insisting fewer subs would not be able to offer the "continuous at-sea deterrence" which Britain has maintained since the 1960s.
Prime Minister David Cameron has left no doubt of his preference for like-for-like replacement of the ageing Trident fleet, which was also backed by then-Labour PM Tony Blair in a 2006 review.
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