The test launch of a British nuclear missile from a Royal Navy submarine fails for the second time in a row, which the tabloids called a humiliation for the Royal Navy.
A Trident II ballistic missile crashed into the sea near the launch site off the coast of Florida. In addition, British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps was on board the HMS Vanguard submarine during the failed test.
The Ministry of Defense (MoD) reported Business InsiderThe UK’s nuclear deterrent has been reported to have suffered an «anomaly» during a test of its nuclear deterrent. The exact cause of what went wrong remains a top secret.
The test as a whole confirmed the effectiveness of the UK’s nuclear deterrent, of which we have every confidence. We are confident that the anomaly was related to a specific event and therefore there are no implications for the reliability of the Trident missile systems. The UK nuclear deterrent remains safe, secure and effective.
— said a representative of the Defense Ministry.
Trident — is the name of the British nuclear weapons program, which includes a group of four submarines, long-range missiles and nuclear warheads. At least one of the submarines is on constant patrol to deter threats, and warheads are not mounted on missiles during testing. Trident II missiles were developed in the United States by Lockheed Martin.
Officials say that the Trident missile remains one of the most effective in the world and has successfully completed 190 tests. The last one took place in 2016, when a British Navy submarine off the US coast fired a missile at a pre-set target in the sea off the coast of West Africa. However, it misfired and instead headed toward the United States.
The January test failure was the latest in a string of unfortunate incidents for the Royal Navy, which critics say has long been underfunded. Earlier this month, two Royal Navy aircraft carriers experienced technical problems that prevented them from joining NATO exercises off the coast of Norway.