Britain in top-secret work on new n-warhead, says report

British scientists are secretly working on the design of a revamped nuclear warhead at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire, a short drive from here, a leading daily reported on Tuesday. “The new device, designated the High Surety Warhead, is the British version of the Reliable Replacement Warhead programme which started more than two years ago at the US military’s California and New Mexico nuclear laboratories,” The Herald quoted sources as saying.

In fact, the top-secret project is being run in conjunction with the American efforts to build a range of modernised “failsafe” nuclear firepower for its own submarine-launched Trident missiles, the unnamed sources said. “The aim (of the project) is to produce warheads which contain fewer degradable components, giving them a longer shelf-life, and to make them so dependable that none would have to be detonated in an underground explosion that would contravene the worldwide test ban,” the sources said.

However, a spokesperson of the Ministry of Defence told the daily: “No decisions on any replacement for Trident have yet been taken and there is no programme to build a successor warhead.”