British Armed Forces’ Mismanagement of Nuclear Weapons Infrastructure Costs Over $1.75 Billion - National Audit Office

An official report by Britain’s National Audit Office on the modernisation of the country’s nuclear deterrent has revealed that £1.35 billion ($1.756 billion) has been wasted due to the Defence Ministry’s mismanagement. Examples included construction of factories to build new nuclear cores before the cores themselves were designed - with the buildings later found to be too small. It further blames civil servants for signing contracts with monopoly contractors, which gave little incentive to keep costs down, among several other serious blunders. These mistakes have caused delays of at least six years to the program. Britain currently deploys all its nuclear weapons from nuclear powered ballistic missile submarines, the Vanguard Class, which are set to be replaced by the Dreadnought Class which will enter service in the early 2030s.

The first two Dreadnought Class ships are currently under construction, and the warships are designed to deploy up to 12 Trident II D5 intercontinental ranged ballistic missiles. These missiles were developed by U.S. defence manufacturer Lockheed Martin, and also equip the U.S. Navy’s Ohio Class Ballistic Missile Submarines. Britain’s ability to afford its extremely ambitious military modernisation program remains highly questionable, with considerable cuts made to the country’s defence budget throughout the 2010s and no major spending increases expected. The funds wasted under the modernisation program will only place further strain on the country’s defence budget.