Vanguard-class submarine HMS Vigilant. Danny Lawson/PA Wire/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.The United Kingdom parliament has taken a historic decision over the future of the country's nuclear arsenal. On 18 July 2016, it voted by a substantial majority to go ahead with building four Successor-class ballistic-missile submarines to replace the current Vanguard fleet. The cost is estimated at £31 billion for the submarines with a contingency of another £10bn. This combined figure of £41bn, however, is a small part of the overall cost of constructing and maintaining the boats, the warheads, and the many other support requirements.
The warheads are developed and assembled at the Aldermaston/Burghfield complex which has annual running costs of at least £1bn a year. The missile submarines need protection by nuclear-powered (but not nuclear-armed) attack submarines, and are also given support from surface warships. One of the functions of the fleet of nine new Boeing P-8 Poseidon maritime-patrol aircraft, also just ordered at a cost of a further £3 million, is to provide further protection.
The total cost estimates now vary, over the lifetime of the new submarines and their missiles, from £140bn-£200bn. This huge commitment to just a single project causes concern not just in among the public but right across the armed services, including even the Royal Navy – although views from within the services rarely, if ever, surface in the public domain.
