presumably the UK could figure out how to remove the top of a trident missile and replace it with a load of ball bearings

Tridents can reach mach 19. Orbital velocity is more like mach 100.

Not that the UK manufactures trident missiles anyway.

	▲	kuschku 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		You don't need orbital velocity to blow satellites away. Just do a well-timed suborbital launch against the satellite's orbit, and the satellite will provide most of the kinetic energy.
	▲	eeL3bo1mohn7pee 10 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		27720km/h orbital velocity is Mach 22.4 at a sea level speed of sound
	▲	adastra22 8 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Orbital velocity is nowhere near mach 100.
	▲	blibble 12 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		if only you could put some sort of explosive charge on the top