One out of 156 ain't bad.

[Workingman]

North Korea launches missile test after missile test and ever so many of them fail, or so we are told. Yet 'experts' claim that it is only a few years away from producing a ballistic missile capable of hitting the USA's western states. Something has to be done, we are warned. North Korea is a dangerous pariah state and must be controlled, even destroyed.

Contrast that with the media 'outrage' at the failure of one unarmed Trident missile test which self-destructed, as it would have been programmed to do - one failure out of 156 such tests. Suddenly it is being reported that Trident is useless. CND supporters are given airtime to make their claims that Trident is as dangerous to us as it is to our enemies. There are claims of a cover-up and that parliament was misled in the vote about whether to keep Trident.

Well hang on. One failure is not a disaster, and the fact that we know about it means that it was not covered up. We might not have broadcast it to everyone, including our enemies, on the day it happened and that, I believe, is because the failure will have had to be thoroughly investigated to discover the cause. As for claims that the vote would have gone the other way, what nonsense! MPs voted 4:1 in favour of keeping Trident, one test failure would hardly have made any difference.

Members of the media should be ashamed of themselves for making this particular molehill into a mountain, but they will not. Many of them are in support of scrapping Trident and are using this incident to push their agenda.

[TheOstrich]

Many of them are in support of scrapping Trident and are using this incident to push their agenda.

An absolutely spot-on assessment, WM, and I have no doubt all the sound and fury is being orchestrated by the CND and their liberal-leftie-luvvie comrades.

It would seem from first assessments that the missile firing system on the submarine worked fine; the problem was with the missile itself - so the ball's in Lockheed Martin's court ...

It's not the first time a Trident missile has malfunctioned, apparently.

[Suff]

Erm, let me see.

If Trident is now having issues and is starting to get failures, would it not be even MORE urgent to replace it then????

Of course the press is not known for it's logic.

Perhaps May needs to get Trump's press liaison officer over here for some coaching???

[Workingman]

It would seem from first assessments that the missile firing system on the submarine worked fine; the problem was with the missile itself - so the ball's in Lockheed Martin's court ...

I have just been watching a press preview and I think the Times is reporting that the US urged the UK to keep the failure quiet till investigations were completed. Makes sense.

Erm, let me see.

If Trident is now having issues and is starting to get failures, would it not be even MORE urgent to replace it then????

Yes!

The subs and warheads are ours, the delivery system is not. A good case could be made for us developing our own system. We do have the technology and the expertise.