- A US company has won a deal to provide “unique system engineering support” to the UK’s Trident nuclear deterrent
- The UK and US share a pool of US-manufactured Trident II D5 ballistic missiles, for which the UK pays a fee
- The future of the UK’s nuclear deterrent is uncertain, with the past two test fires resulting in embarrassing failure
A US-based company has been contracted to provide UK-specific support to the Royal Navy’s strategic nuclear deterrent programme, known colloquially as ‘Trident’, a name derived from the type of ballistic missile operated by the service’s Vanguard-class SSBNs.
Briefly detailed in a 23 January announcement by the US Department of Defense (DoD), the contact will see Alexandria-based Systems Planning and Analysis (SPA) awarded a $67.5m cost-plus-fixed-fee term (including option years) task order to “support the Trident II Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile Strategic Weapons System (SWS)”.
Tasks to be performed by SPA include systems engineering and analysis support, technical assessments, arms control and treaty support, risk assessment, mission oversight counsel support, among others, as well as, crucially, “SWS UK unique systems engineering and programme support”.
The vast majority of the work performed for the support programme will take place in the US, although 2% was stated to be completed in the UK. The contract is due for completion by the end of Q3, 2030.
Explicitly, the announcement states that the contract “benefits a Foreign Military Sale to the UK”.
The contracting authority was listed as the US military’s Strategic Systems Programs office, based in Washington, DC.
UK nuclear deterrent failures
The UK’s submarine-based nuclear deterrent has suffered a number of failures during test fires of the Trident II D-5 ballistic missile in recent years. Most recently, a test fire of by HMS Vanguard failed in January 2024 off the coast of Florida, with a previous failure having occurred in 2016 with HMS Vengeance.
Humiliatingly for the Royal Navy, the then Secretary of Defence Grant Shapps and First Sea Lord Admiral Ben Key were onboard HMS Vanguard during the most recent Trident failure in 2024.
The UK-based International Institute for Strategic Studies wrote in 2024 that the UK had performed a total of 12 Trident II D5 launches since the missiles were introduced to Royal Navy service in 1994.
The US and UK share a pool of certified Trident II D5 ballistic missiles, with UK missiles being taken to HMNB Clyde to fit UK-manufactured nuclear warheads.
In 2025 it was revealed that Lockheed Martin was to begin work on an upgraded design of the Trident missile, dubbed the Trident II D5 Life Extension 2 (D5LE2).
