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CND challenges figures on cost of Trident replacement

By agency reporter
July 18, 2016

MPs will today (18 July 2016 )decide on whether to replace Trident, Britain's nuclear weapons system

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) has called for an honest debate, saying that politicians, such as Defence Secretary Michael Fallon, claim that Trident replacement will cost £31 billion. CND says this is the cost of replacing Trident submarines, just one part of the total cost of the new system.

In addition to the submarines there is a £10 billion contingency fund. Then there is the missile extension programme (£350 million), replacement warheads (£4 billion), infrastructure capital costs (£4 billion), in service costs (£142 billion), conventional military forces directly assigned to support Trident (£1 billion), and decommissioning (£13 billion).

It is completely dishonest for the government to hold debate about Trident without telling the public the full cost, says CND.

* Download the CND report which brings together the most up to date available costings in the public domain here

*CND http://www.cnduk.org/home

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