On February 20, 2024, the test firing of a Trident missile from a Royal Navy submarine failed. According to British Sources, the missile’s ‘stage zero’ rockets failed and it landed in the sea, not far off from the launch site. Many local sources claim that this failure was a malfunction, which is highly embarrassing for both the UK and the USA (for creating the missile), as this is the second time in a row that the Trident missile has failed.

The Trident missiles are a part of Britain’s “nuclear deterrent system,” and if the UK were to be attacked, they would be able to respond with a retaliatory strike. This concept is known as “mutually assured destruction”(MAD). The system contains four nuclear-powered submarines called “Vanguard-class submarines,” which can hold up to sixteen warheads each.

The Royal Navy states that there is always at least one armed submarine patrolling at sea, two more prepared for deployment at a moment’s notice, and one more undergoing maintenance. The entire network costs about $26.5bn or six percent of the country’s defense budget, with each missile costing around £17m, so each failure is a costly blow to the UK.