Britain to Test Fire Nuclear Missile in Just Days in Major Show of Force to Iran and Russia
The Royal Navy is set to test a nuclear missile for the first time in eight years
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Britain is set to rest fire a nuclear missile in just a few days in a major show of force towards Iran and Russia.
This will be the first time since 2016 that the UK will test fire a missile and it comes amid warnings that the world could be edging closer to World War III.
The HMS Vanguard submarine sailed into the Atlantic earlier this week and according to the Sun, it is expected to fire the missile off the coast of the US, near Florida.
It is expected to launch a single unarmed missile that will fly 3,500 miles and land in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of West Africa.
The US National Geospatial Intelligence Agency issued a warning to shipping to expect an impact in the area of the mid-Atlantic.
The warning also urges those closer to the launch site to be aware as debris is expected to fall as parts of the missile are burnt out and discarded.
The warning is in place from January 30 through February 4.
The tests are the final hurdle the £4billion sub has to overcome before re-entering service as part of the UK’s nuclear deterrent fleet.
The 30-year-old sub had spent the past seven years undergoing a refit in Plymouth and has been dubbed as a “colossus” by the Royal Navy.
The sub’s refit reportedly cost £500million and took three years longer than expected.
The 491ft beast can carry up to 16 Trident 2 D5 missiles, each armed with warheads 20 times more powerful than the weapons dropped on Japan in World War Two.
The last test which took place eight years ago with the HMS Vengeance, ended in failure.
The missile was due to 5,500 miles from near the coast of Florida to a target south east of Ascension Island.
It veered dangerously off course and self-destructed automatically.
That had been only the fifth time a Trident 2 missile had been fired this century, with the previous tests taking place in 2000, 2005, 2009 and 2012.
Trident missiles are designed to blast to the edge of space before re-entering the atmosphere and plummeting towards earth.
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