According to a government watchdog, Britain’s programme to replace its ageing Trident nuclear submarines, has been rated ‘red’ for the third year running. The red rating – the lowest rating there is – means that “successful delivery of the project appears to be unachievable” and it may need its “overall viability reassessed”.
Published in January, the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) annual report covering 2023-2024, graded as ‘unachievable’ the £4 billion programme by Rolls-Royce to supply the nuclear reactors that would propel the new Dreadnought submarines. The report cited “major issues” that do not seem to be “manageable or resolvable”.
Given the centrality of the nuclear reactors to the submarines, it is not surprising that the report has given “amber” ratings – that include “significant issues” requiring “management attention” – to the entire upgrade of the Dreadnought submarine programme. The upgrade is one of eight nuclear weapons programmes also given amber ratings, totalling costs in excess of £55 billion.
Costings were absent from other “amber” rated nuclear programmes, including at the Atomic Weapons Establishment facility in Aldermaston. This is where the nuclear warhead delivery facility is now so far behind schedule – over 7 years – and double its original cost, that the Ministry of Defence has now refused to report on it further, using national security interests to justify the secrecy.
CND General Secretary Sophie Bolt said:
“This report lays bare that Britain’s nuclear weapons programme is a total disaster. How can the government justify spending billions of pounds on an immoral, outdated and ineffective nuclear weapons system which has been branded ‘unachievable’ by its own watchdog? And this is the industry that is supposed to deliver dynamic growth for the British economy! Given the repeated failures of Trident – plagued with ‘major issues’ that do not appear to be ‘manageable or resolvable’ – it’s time the government cut its losses and scrapped the next generation of its weapons of mass destruction.”
More coverage on this story in The Ferret and The National.
Image credit: Ministry of Defence