§ Mr. MacdonaldTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is his Department's assessment as to the financial savings that would accrue from a cancellation of the fourth Trident submarine in 1991.
§ Mr. NeubertThe position remains as set out by MOD officials in evidence to the Select Committee on Defence in response to a question raised by the Clerk to the Committee on 11 May 1989, and published in its report, "The Progress of the Trident Programme" (Defence Committee Fifth Report HC 374, 21 June 1989).
§ Mr. MacdonaldTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is his Department's assessment as to the yearly running costs of maintaining(a) a three-boat Trident force and (b) a four-boat Trident force.
§ Mr. NeubertIt is too early to state with any precision the likely running costs of the Trident force, other than to say they are not anticipated to be significantly different from those for Polaris.
§ Mr. MacdonaldTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is the number of warheads that each Trident D5 missile is assumed to carry according to the counting rules adopted in the START negotiations.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonIn their joint summit statement of December 1987, the United States and Soviet482W Governments confirmed their assumption that the Trident II missile would be deployed with eight warheads. The United Kingdom Government, which is not, of course, a party to the START negotiations, has already stated that the United Kingdom deploys a maximum of 128 warheads per submarine.