Minister updates on Trident
May says she has ‘absolute faith’ in Britain’s nuclear deterrent
Defence Secretary Michael Fallon was yesterday summoned to the House of Commons to provide an update on the Trident nuclear deterrent after reports that a missile veered off course during a test last June.
Mr Fallon repeatedly refused to divulge “operational details” of what happened.
The reports have sparked claims of a “cover-up”.
Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon was summoned to the House of Commons to update MPS on a nuclear missile Trident test amid reports that a missile malfunctioned but he repeatedly refused to discuss details of the launch.
He restated the government’s confidence in the “capability and effectiveness” of the Trident system. But as he was speaking, CNN reported an unnamed US defence official with direct knowledge of the incident had confirmed the unarmed Trident II D5 missile veered off course after being launched from a Royal Navy submarine off the coast of Florida.
The US official was reported to have said the altered trajectory was part of an automatic self-destruct sequence triggered when missile electronics detect an anomaly.
Prime Minister Theresa May has said she has “absolute faith” in Britain’s Trident nuclear deterrent, following reports a missile went off course.
The reports have led to claims of a “cover-up”, as MPS were not told about the June 2016 test when they voted on the £40 billion renewal of the Trident system the following month.
Mrs May confirmed she was informed about the test before addressing MPS ahead of the vote, which came just days after she entered office.
Mrs May said: “I’m regularly briefed on national security issues, I was briefed on successful certification of HMS Vengeance and her crew.
“We don’t comment on operational details for national security reasons.”
Sir Michael told MPS that a demonstration and shakedown “concludes each time with an unarmed missile firing”, adding: “HMS Vengeance successfully concluded that shakedown operation.”
Labour’s former defence minister Kevan Jones, whose urgent question forced the Defence Secretary to come to the Commons, challenged Sir Michael to confirm that the missile veered off course and explain who ordered a “news blackout” on the test.
Sir Michael responded: “There are very few things that we cannot discuss openly in parliament, but the security of our nuclear deterrent is certainly one of them.
“It has never been the practice of governments to give parliament details of the demonstration and shakedown operations.”
He added: “It may well be that earlier governments in different situations, indeed in more benevolent times, might have take different decisions about how much information they were prepared to reveal about these particular demonstration and shake-down operations. But these are not, of course, as benevolent times.”