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UK Builds Next-Gen Nuclear Warhead—No Testing, No Explosions, Full Deterrence

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Ivan Khomenko
News Writer
HMS Vengeance, one of four UK Vanguard-class submarines designed to carry Trident missiles, seen departing for overhaul in 2012. The new Astraea warhead will replace existing payloads aboard these submarines in the 2030s. (Source: Getty Images)
HMS Vengeance, one of four UK Vanguard-class submarines designed to carry Trident missiles, seen departing for overhaul in 2012. The new Astraea warhead will replace existing payloads aboard these submarines in the 2030s. (Source: Getty Images)

The UK Ministry of Defense has confirmed that development of the country’s next-generation nuclear warhead, known as Project Astraea, is advancing under the Strategic Defence Review 2025 programme, according to UK Defence Journal.

In a written statement to Parliament, Defense Minister Luke Pollard said that “funding for the Astraea programme is included within the £15 billion investment in the sovereign nuclear warhead programme this Parliament.”

The allocation also covers the sustainment of the current Mk4A warhead and upgrades to the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), which designs and produces the UK’s nuclear arsenal.

Pollard noted that the estimated total cost of Astraea remains classified “for the purpose of safeguarding our national security.”

Project Astraea—designated A21/Mk7—is being developed entirely in the United Kingdom by the AWE, which was nationalised in 2021.

The warhead will replace the existing Holbrook design currently deployed on Trident II D5 missiles aboard the Royal Navy’s Vanguard-class submarines and their future Dreadnought-class successors.

The programme is being developed in parallel with the US W93 warhead initiative. Both systems will share certain non-nuclear components, including the Mk7 aeroshell, under long-standing bilateral treaties designed to maintain interoperability between the two allies’ Trident-based deterrent systems.

According to the Strategic Defence Review 2025, the sovereign warhead programme supports approximately 9,000 jobs across the Defence Nuclear Enterprise. Astraea is expected to enter service in the 2030s, coinciding with the planned retirement of the Holbrook warhead.

Official documents cited by UK Defence Journal note that Astraea will feature improved safety and performance technologies, including the use of insensitive high explosives and systems developed through the UK–US Joint Technology Demonstrator initiative.

The new system will also mark a first for Britain’s nuclear arsenal—it will be certified without live nuclear testing, in line with the country’s commitments under the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

Earlier, UK Defence Journal reported that the US had redeployed B61-12 tactical nuclear bombs to RAF Lakenheath for the first time since 2008, following infrastructure upgrades at the base. The precision-guided weapons are believed to support the F-35A aircraft stationed there.

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