Scrapping Trident up for debate again

London: The future of Britain's Trident nuclear missile system is again under threat as ministers draw up detailed plans for spending cuts, The Sunday Telegraph understands.

The National Security Council will discuss plans for a £20 billion (Dh112 billion) Trident replacement on Friday, with the debate said to include whether the replacement should go ahead at all, not just how it would be funded.

Senior defence chiefs are understood to be split over whether Britain should retain a submarine-based strategic nuclear deterrent or opt for a cheaper alternative.

The NSC will also discuss options for a whole series of future defence projects and will decide what needs to be axed to make Britain's Armed Forces more flexible, relevant and less expensive.

General Sir David Richards, the incoming chief of the defence staff, is understood to favour retaining Trident but will support calls for the replacement programme to be delayed by up to five years.

Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, also supports retaining a strategic nuclear deterrent but is said to be "open to alternative options", that would ease the burden on the defence budget.

The options include reducing the number of submarines from four to three or two boats. Other senior chiefs are proposing that Britain retain its nuclear capability through cruise missiles, which offer a more flexible deterrent.

Pressure

The government is under increasing pressure to reach a consensus over the Trident replacement programme, which is costing £1 million a day in research and development. Scrapping Trident in favour of a cheaper option would spark outrage among right-leaning Tory MPs and would be a massive political gamble for Cameron.

It would also represent a big win for Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats, who opposed renewing Trident in their election manifesto. Up until now it had been assumed that a similar system to the current Trident would get the go-ahead.

The main debate was whether it would be funded from within the Ministry of Defence's £35 billion-a-year budget, as the Treasury is demanding, or whether its costs would continue to be ring-fenced. It now appears that there is no certainty that a submarine-based system will be approved at all.

A cheaper option, possibly based on shorter-range cruise missiles, would result in the capability to launch nuclear strikes from aircraft, submarines or surface ships.

Supporters of the current system say this would abandon the key "stealth" capability to strike without being detected.

Nick Clegg raised eyebrows last month by saying that the "huge" cost of replacing Trident was hard to justify amid severe cuts.