In September, the Caribbean Astronomy Society detected an unattributed “military test” when either a U.S. or U.K. nuclear-powered submarine fired a 130,000-pound Trident missile from near Puerto Rico. The missile, a Trident II D5, is an intercontinental-range ballistic missile with a yield of 7 to 95 kilotons. Regularly, the U.S. military publicly announces its missile tests in advance. In January, Lockheed Martin won a $383 million contract for the Trident II D5 Life Extension program to “modernize” the Trident arsenal, providing missiles for the Navy’s new Columbia-class submarines and the U.K.’s Dreadnought-class submarines. Each of the Trident II D5 missiles currently built by Lockheed Martin costs about $30.9 million and each missile can carry up to 12 independently targeted warheads. The Trident II D5 is described by the U.S. Navy as “the planet’s most lethal, accurate, and reliable sea-based strategic deterrent.” Fourteen Ohio-class submarines in the U.S. Navy and four Vanguard-class British submarines each carry 20 and 16 of these missiles per sub respectively. — Interesting Engineering, Sept. 22, 2025; Hans Kristensen & Matt Korda, “United States nuclear forces, 2019,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, April 29, 2019, https://nuclearcompanion.com/data/trident-ii-d-5-missile/
Photo: The National Interest
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