§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the consequences for the British Trident programme of the latest failure of a United States Trident missile.
§ Mr. SainsburyThere are no consequences for the British Trident programme as a result of the most recent Trident D5 missile flight failure in the United States. This was only the second failure in 13 launches. This continues to represent a very high success rate for such a development programme. The cause of the failure is under investigation by the United States authorities and their initial view is that there will be little effect on the United States Trident II missile test programme.