Does Britain Still Possess A Credible Nuclear Deterrent?

The news that one of the UK's proud arsenal of nuclear-capable missiles fell harmlessly into the Atlantic during testing comes as a further embarrassment to the Ministry of Defence.

- SEAN O'GRADY

In recent weeks, the British public, increasingly alarmed at the behaviour of Vladimir Putin, has learnt that the army stands at its lowest strength since the Napoleonic wars, that both of our otherwise magnificent aircraft carriers have trouble getting seaborne, that one of our warships crashed into another because of “faulty wiring”, and that Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw the US commitment to Nato.

Even the special forces, the finest of their kind in the world, are now being accused of war crimes in Afghanistan. It’s not inspiring confidence...

Why are our missiles misfiring?

Something to do with telemetrics, maybe. If anyone does know, then it’s a secret. The MoD says “an anomaly occurred” – a refreshingly novel euphemism for failure – and that the incident was “event specific”. Even so, a similar thing apparently happened in 2016. The government assures us that “there are no implications for the reliability of the wider Trident missile systems and stockpile”. Phew.

Is our independent nuclear deterrent still a deterrent?