The pool of Trident submarine-launched inter-continental ballistic missiles shared by the USA and UK provides the most capable and tested nuclear capability in use anywhere in the world.
Deployed across the oceans of the world, ballistic missile submarines are extremely hard to find and offer the most reliable means of retaliatory strike against any foe who dared to use WMD against us.
It is a capability that has kept the peace since 1945, the first and last time nuclear weapons were used in anger.
The UK’s Trident C5 ballistic missile, which is the basis of our nuclear deterrent, builds on the technical know-how and experience gained through our original Polaris missile system developed in the 1960s.
READ MORE: British nuclear deterrent test missile ‘went plop’ into sea after reported fail
Each Trident missile delivers 10 warheads with a 475-kiloton warhead and can attack targets at a distance of 7,000 miles. The current missile is being upgraded to the new Trident D5 Extension Life II standard, which will allow it to remain in service to 2080.
Exact details of what this will include are obviously highly classified, but improvements will likely ensure that the missile cannot be intercepted. It is possible that the revised system was being tested by the Royal Navy, which might explain the failure.
The Royal Navy’s new class of four Dreadnought ballistic missile submarines are being built in the UK at Barrow-in-Furnress and will enter service in the early 2030s to replace the existing fleet of Vanguard SSBNs.
Each Dreadnought can carry 12 missiles or 120 warheads in total.
In 2021, former UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, announced that Britain would increase its stockpile of Trident D5 missiles from 180 to 260 missiles.
The reason Britain has four missile submarines is to ensure that at any one time there is always one on patrol. We refer to the capability as “Continuous At Sea Deterrent” or CASD.
In summary, Britain has a formidable nuclear capability and despite Trident being a US missile, it is an independent system that we can deploy and use however we see fit.
The destructive power of Trident remains something that makes Vladimir Putin very wary of escalating the war in Ukraine.
