The latest Trident nuclear missile test, carried out off the east coast of the United States, ended in another failure.
The Royal Navy’s new test of the Trident missile – the cornerstone of Britain’s nuclear deterrent – failed within secondswhich raises doubts about the viability of the country’s deterrence as the nuclear tensions are at their highest.
According to The Sun newspaper, the American-made Trident missile was launched from the submarine HMS Vanguard off the east coast of the United States.
However, instead of traveling thousands of kilometers before crashing into the southern Atlantic Ocean, as planned, it crashed into the sea near the launch site.
This is the second consecutive failure of a Trident test. The previous one dates back to 2016, when another missile fired from a submarine near Florida experienced a malfunction in flight and veered off course towards the American mainland.
The incident had already undermined the credibility of the British nuclear deterrent.
Britain has maintained a nuclear deterrent since 1967, with a constant patrol carried out by one of its four nuclear submarines.
The launch protocol is very specific: if the submarine crew is informed that the United Kingdom has suffered a devastating attack, they must open a letter signed by the Prime Minister, kept secret until that moment, telling him whether or not to launch the missiles.
The powder magazine
The news of the failure of the last attempt comes as concerns about nuclear weapons reach new heights in decades.
A US intelligence report released last week mentions that Russia is considering launching a nuclear weapon into space. This would be maintained in low Earth orbit to constitute a perpetual threat.
This concern would be so pressing that senior US diplomats consulted with their Indian and Chinese counterparts to find a way to dissuade Russia from carrying out the launch.
Russia has previously made nuclear threats over the war in Ukraine. While few people actually expect Vladimir Putin to launch a full-scale attack on a NATO country, some fear he could deploy a tactical weapon on the battlefield.
Faced with the prospect that a re-elected Donald Trump could withdraw from NATO altogether – he recently said that any country that did not pay its fair share would be left at the mercy of Russia – a German government minister recently wrote an opinion piece calling for a reorientation of British and French deterrence towards the defense of the entire European continent.
Meanwhile, as arms control treaties between the United States and Russia lie in tatters, China continues to develop its nuclear arsenal, and North Korea continues sporadic testing of nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Iran also remains a source of concern, with the head of the UN nuclear watchdog warning that the government in Tehran was not “fully transparent” about its enrichment program.