Vladimir Putin will be laughing so loud the Kremlin will shake after the Royal Navy’s nuclear submarine Trident missile misfired and went “plop” into the ocean off the coast of Florida.
Despite this embarrassing blunder apparently the Ministry of Defence (MoD) claims that the UK’s nuclear deterrent “remains safe, secure and effective.”
However this is the second time in eight years the Trident missile has failed to launch which comes after the Royal Navy test fired an unarmed II D5 ballistic missile.
The MoD said on Tuesday night that an “anomaly” occurred involving HMS Vanguard and the fault was something to do with the test fire.
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Had it been a real nuclear weapon it would have been successful, according to a source.
The Sun newspaper said that the Trident 2 missile propelled successfully from under the water, however the first stage boosters failed to ignite.
A source told the newspaper, “It left the submarine but it just went plop, right next to them.”
The Ministry of Defence spokesperson said, despite the failure, the submarine and crew “have been proven fully capable of operating the UK’s Continuous At-Sea Deterrent, passing all tests during a recent demonstration and shakedown operation (DASO) – a routine test to confirm that the submarine can return to service following deep maintenance work.”
The spokesperson said: “The test has reaffirmed the effectiveness of the UK’s nuclear deterrent, in which we have absolute confidence.
“During the test an anomaly occurred.
“As a matter of national security, we cannot provide further information on this, however we are confident that the anomaly was event specific, and therefore there are no implications for the reliability of the wider Trident missile systems and stockpile.”
On 1 February the Daily Star reported that the Putin will “laugh so loud the Kremlin would shake” if the test launch fails for a second time.
Professor Anthony Glees of Buckingham University, told the Daily Star, at the time, “If the launch goes well, I think Putin will not be that fussed. If the launch goes not go well, Putin will be over the moon.
“For me, the danger here is that the missile launch will fail again as it did in 2016. Putin will laugh so loud the Kremlin will shake.
“We must not let this happen. It would be catastrophic if it did.”
