Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday January 24 2017, @08:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the failure-to-launch dept.

A missile test involving Britain's Trident nuclear deterrent system ended in failure off the coast of Florida last year, a US defense official with direct knowledge of the incident told CNN on Monday.

The official told CNN that the incident, which happened last June in an the area off the Florida coast used by the US and the UK for missile tests, did not in involve a nuclear warhead.

Britain's Sunday Times newspaper reported that the missile veered towards the US coast, but the US official told CNN that this trajectory was part of an automatic self-destruct sequence. The official said the missile diverted into the ocean -- an automatic procedure when missile electronics detect an anomaly.

A month after the test, the UK parliament approved the renewal of Trident at a cost of £40 billion. Unaware of the failure, members of the House of Commons voted by 472 votes to 117 in favor of renewal.

On Sunday, British Prime Minister Theresa May was asked four times during an interview with the BBC's Andrew Marr Show whether she knew of the missile failure before the vote. May refused to answer.

Source:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/23/europe/trident-missile-failure-theresa-may/index.html

-- submitted from IRC


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday January 24 2017, @11:20AM

    by driverless (4770) on Tuesday January 24 2017, @11:20AM (#458052)

    Perhaps post an affiliate link for interested governments to purchase said weapons system?

    Sure [youtube.com].

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2