Trident (Hansard, 18 January 1994)

§ Mr. Macdonald
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether the United Kingdom's Trident missiles will be more accurate than the Polaris ones they replace.

§ Mr. Hanley
Yes.

§ Mr. Macdonald
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether the warheads deployed on the United Kingdom's Trident missiles will be independently targetable.

§ Mr. Hanley
Yes.

§ Mr. Macdonald
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what proportion of the total number of Trident missiles being purchased by the United Kingdom are to form part of a processing margin.
505W

§ Mr. Aitken
On current plans, about 5 per cent. of the total number of United Kingdom's Trident missiles will form part of a processing margin.

§ Mr. Macdonald
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether he plans any demonstration that the Trident deployment will not involve any increase in strategic nuclear warheads above Polaris levels.

§ Mr. Hanley
In keeping with the practice of successive Governments, we do not make public the number of warheads actually deployed on our submarines. The question of verification does not arise.

§ Mr. Macdonald
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether he plans to deploy conventional warheads on the United Kingdom's Trident missiles.

§ Mr. Hanley
The Government have no such plans.

§ Mr. Macdonald
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is the maximum number of warheads assumed to be carried by each United States Trident D5 missile under the terms of the strategic arms reduction treaties.

§ Mr. Hanley
The details of the START I and START II treaties are a matter for the parties to those treaties. Under the memorandum of understanding on the establishment of the data base relating to the treaty between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the reduction and limitation of strategic offensive arms—START I—deployed United States Trident II ((D5) missiles are attributed with eight warheads. START II sets additional limits on the overall number of warheads attributed to deployed submarine-launched ballistic missiles and modifies the rules established under START I for reducing the number of warheads attributed to deployed missiles.

§ Mr. Macdonald
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is his policy on revealing the number of missiles and warheads deployed on the United Kingdom's Trident submarines; and in what circumstances the policy is reconsidered.

§ Mr. Aitken
It is our policy to be as open about the United Kingdom's nuclear deterrent as is possible without revealing information which might diminish the effectiveness of the system. For that reason we do not make public the number of missiles or warheads actually deployed on our submarines.

§ Mr. Macdonald
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether he will apply a maximum ceiling to the number of warheads carried on any individual Trident missile.

§ Mr. Aitken
No. Overall, each Trident submarine will deploy with no more than 96 warheads.