The Royal Navy’s Vanguard Class that carries the Trident nuclear deterent submarines ..
...are to be replaced as part of a new £1 billion contract announced on Monday of this week. The money will be used to build two reactor cores. One will be used for the seventh Astute Class attack submarine – that are nuclear-powered but not nuclear-armed. The other reactor could be used for the first of the next generation of nuclear-armed submarines.
Three hundred new jobs will be created at the five-year-old Rolls Royce plant in Raynesway, Derbyshire to be regenerated over an 11 year period as a further part of the scheme to allow the highly specialised work to be carried out.
A government spokesman said that it was essential that British forces keep up with modern technology in an increasingly unstable world. The new reactors are expected to have a life of 30 or 40 years.
Sky News’ Mark Stone said: "The complicated part is that this isn't to replace the missiles.The nuclear missiles that Britain has don't pass their sell-by date until about 2040. This is regarding the replacement of the vehicle which these [nuclear] missiles are contained in – the submarine."