Trident is being secretly upgraded, report claims

Secret work is under way to upgrade the existing Trident arsenal and to develop an entirely new warhead, a report from the Nuclear Information Service (NIS) has claimed.

Peter Burt of the NIS says: “The Mark 4A warhead modification programme will allow Trident nuclear warheads to remain in service until the middle of this century, and plenty of money is being spent to pave the way for developing a new generation warhead which will remain in service for even longer.”

The ‘Mark 4A’ warhead program is collaborating with a US program to improve the performance of the W76 warhead and extend its operational lifetime, the NIS says.

Controversially, the report claims that, as of yet, Parliament is unaware of current costs and timetables associated with the upgrades.