In the game of international geopolitics, one of the most fundamental errors you can make is definitely accidentally shooting a nuclear missile at your closest ally. It’s just one of those things that’s super hard to bounce back from.
The government of the United Kingdom is being accused of a cover up after it failed to disclose that a – mercifully unarmed – nuclear missile may have been fired at the United States during a test run for the country’s Trident nuclear deterrence system.
The somewhat awkward allegedly came out during a parliamentary vote on whether the system should be renewed, when an unnamed naval source admitted that a nuke may have veered off toward the American mainland after it was fired from a submarine somewhere off Florida.
Trident missiles have only been test-fired four times this century because they are reasonably expensive – each one is worth around 17 million pounds. Now that’s walking around money!
Now Prime Minister Theresa May is being subjected to questions on whether she knew about the misfire when she convinced Parliament to invest 40 billion pounds into Trident last July. On a BBC TV interview, she deflected the question:
I have absolute faith in our Trident missiles. When I made that speech in the House of Commons what we were talking about was whether or not we should renew our Trident, whether or not we should have Trident missiles. There are tests that take place all the time, regularly for our nuclear deterrent.
A joint statement from May and the Ministry of Defence acknowledged the test had taken place, but did not mention the alleged misfire.
Vengeance and her crew were successfully tested and certified, allowing Vengeance to return into service. We have absolute confidence in our independent nuclear deterrent. We do not provide further details on submarine operations for obvious national security reasons.
Don’t fire nukes at your mates.
Source: News.com.au.
Photo: The Simpsons.
