Uk not prepared for ww3: ‘critical elements’ of programme delayed

IRAN-US CONFLICT COULD ‘SUDDENLY GO OVER THE EDGE’ SAYS EXPERT Tom Plant, director of Proliferation and Nuclear Policy with the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), sounded his warning in

an article published on RUSI’s website. And he urged Parliament to establish a subcommittee of its Defence Select Committee to establish oversight of issues relating to Britain’s nuclear

deterrent during what he described as a “critical period” for the nation. RELATED ARTICLES Mr Plant was writing after the publication of a National Audit Office report earlier this month on

the management of infrastructure projects at nuclear-related sites, which he said made “grim reading”. The report singles out a £240m submarine build facility at the BAE Systems dockyard at

Barrow-in-Furness; a £474m production facility for submarine nuclear reactor cores at Rolls Royce in Raynesway; and a £1.8bn facility at Aldermaston, known as MENSA, for the assembly and

disassembly of current and future nuclear warheads. Mr Plant said: “All are delayed and overspent, but MENSA is the worst offender of the three, with schedule and cost overruns at around 100

percent and 148 percent respectively. “This facility is a critical element of the UK’s nuclear programme, designed to replace the UK’s elderly ‘Gravel Gerties’ – the bunkers designed to

provide containment during nuclear warhead assembly and disassembly processes - at Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) Burghfield.” Britain’s nuclear deterrent is in danger of being seriously

compromised (Image: Getty) UK not prepared for WW3 threat (Image: Getty) AWE was scheduled to be decommissioned between 2015 and 2021 with the in-service date for MENSA set for 2017 – but

this has now been pushed back to 2023. Mr Plant said: “The AWE are therefore now reliant on a warhead assembly facility operating on life support: the Office of Nuclear Regulation – the

independent regulator for the sector - has only certified its safety for operations for a short period, subject to ‘significant upgrades’ to those facilities and enhanced regulatory

monitoring arrangements.” He also identified two other examples from the warhead programme which he said “could point to a serious underlying challenge to the long-term future of the UK’s

nuclear deterrent”. Mr Plant explained: “The first of these cases is AWE’s Pegasus project, which deals with the construction of a new facility to handle and produce enriched uranium

components for the UK’s nuclear warheads, essentially supplying inputs to the current and future assembly/disassembly facilities.” READ MORE:  Doomsday Clock, Boris Johnson’s ‘letter of last

resort' exposed ahead of announcement The largest militaries in the world (Image: Express) The NAO report did not examine this project in detail, because it is not yet in the

construction phase. However, Mr Plant said: “In fact, this £634million project should be well beyond the construction phase by now with the MOD’s original estimates and planning application

indicating that it should have been operating since 2016. “But Pegasus was suspended with no obvious output yet realised as of 2018, with the MOD placing the ‘requirement under

consideration’.” Secondly, he highlighted the project to deliver a new hydrodynamics facility, which would conduct experiments to help scientists understand the behaviour of solid materials

in nuclear warheads during detonation, when they are subject to implosive forces so great that they behave as fluids. DON'T MISS  World War 3: ‘Majority of millennials’ fear nuclear

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Plant highlighted the project to deliver a new hydrodynamics facility (Image: Getty) RELATED ARTICLES He explained: “They are an essential component of the UK’s ability to underwrite the

existing Trident Holbrook warhead and to design a future warhead should one be required, given that nuclear weapons testing is no longer permitted by the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban

Treaty that the UK has been bound by since 1996. “This new facility, under project Hydrus, was developed until 2010, at which point work was terminated shortly after receiving planning

permission, and costs of nearly £120 million were written off. "Development of hydrodynamics capability continued instead under the UK-France TEUTATES programme enabled by the UK-France

Treaty of 2010, with a ‘Technology Development Centre’ at Aldermaston in the UK and the main hydrodynamics facility, ‘TEUTATES EPURE’ at Valduc in France." As a result, whereas Hydrus

had envisaged such a capability being in service sometime between 2010 and 2015, an equivalent capability under the UK-France Treaty was envisaged to emerge only by 2022. Mr Plant said: “In

each of these cases, although the costs are eye-watering, it is the schedule that is the critical issue.” Conflicts around the world that could erupt into World War 3 (Image: Express) The

ability to meet tough performance schedules would determine whether the UK was able to maintain the Continuous At-Sea Deterrence (CASD) which Parliament voted to support in 2016, as well as

the level of warhead capability it has previously deemed necessary. Mr Plant added: “If either slip too far then clearly CASD as we currently know it would be at risk – perhaps from a

safety-related shutdown to an ageing programme-critical facility, or from a lack of data or components to design, underwrite and produce new warheads, or from an inability to produce a

system capable of meeting the high performance standards that the UK has set for itself. Mr Plant said: “Whatever the answers to these questions, the UK’s nuclear programme clearly requires

more urgent political attention than it has hitherto received, as key decision points for the programme approach and cost and schedule overruns begin to bite in earnest. “As it would make

sense for MPs to investigate the matter more closely, and to require greater transparency from the government and from the contractors that deliver key elements of the programme. “A system

of regular and increased accountability could include the establishment of a subcommittee to the House of Commons Defence Select Committee, tasked with oversight of the programme for the

critical period we are now in.”