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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
National
Joe Scotting

£4bn Trident replacement 'unachievable', says government watchdog

A £4 BILLION project aimed at replacing Trident submarines on the River Clyde has been branded as “unachievable” for the third year in a row by a government watchdog.

The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) gave the manufacture of new reactors to power replacement submarines its lowest rating of red for 2023-24.

The IPA says the project has “major issues” that are not “manageable or resolvable”.

The project seeks to construct reactors in four Trident-armed Dreadnought submarines to replace ageing submarines at Faslane in the 2030s. The project was also rated as red in 2022-23 and 2021-22, The Ferret reports.

According to the IPA, that means that “successful delivery of the project appears to be unachievable” and it may need its “overall viability reassessed”.

The IPA has badged eight other major UK nuclear weapons projects, with a combined overall cost of over £55bn, as amber – meaning each has significant issues which require “management attention”.

Projects labelled as amber include new facilities at the Faslane nuclear base, near Helensburgh, and dismantling nuclear submarines at Rosyth in Fife.

The construction of the entire future nuclear submarines Astute, Dreadnought and Aukus were also rated amber.

The SNP scolded the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for being “totally unable” to deliver a cost-effective replacement for Trident on time. The Scottish Greens said that the public purse shouldn’t be used on “deadly Cold War hangovers".

The MoD claims the programme is “on track” for submarines to begin entering service in the “early 2030s”.

The IPA’s latest report for 2023-24 was published in January 2025 which assessed the feasibility of 227 large government projects, including 44 run by the MoD with a total cost of £298bn.

It said: “There are major issues with project definition, schedule, budget, quality and/or benefits delivery, which at this stage do not appear to be manageable or resolvable.”

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