Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Jeremy Corbyn (Labour). It was answered by Peter Luff (Conservative) on Monday, 19 December 2011 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Trident

Question: What expenditure on the Trident replacement he expects to have incurred by 2016.

Answer: We expect to spend £3.9 billion on the successor submarine programme by the maingate decision-point in 2016. We have deferred the decision on the future warhead until the next Parliament. We are spending around £900 million a year at AWE—the Atomic Weapons Establishment—on capital investment and running costs to ensure that we can sustain the capabilities to maintain the current stockpile. As a consequence of this sustainment, we will also have the capability to design and produce a new warhead, should that be required. We expect to spend around £8 million over the next three years to examine the condition of the physical infrastructure at the naval bases and current communications systems for the successor submarines.

Secondary information