UK Chancellor Rejects Exempting Trident From Budget Cuts-Reports

30th Jul 2010 08:54

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has rejected exempting the U.K.'s Trident nuclear-weapons system from budget cuts, revealing a split with Defense Secretary Liam Fox, Bloomberg reports on its website. "The Trident costs, I have made it absolutely clear, are part of the defense budget," Osborne said in an interview in New Delhi Thursday. "All budgets have pressure. I don't think there's anything particularly unique about the ministry of defense. I have made it very clear that Trident renewal costs must be taken as part of the defense budget." Fox doesn't want the GBP20 billion needed to build submarines for carrying Trident missiles to come out of his department's "core" budget. Total U.K. defense spending is about GBP40 billion a year. In the London-based Metro newspaper Friday, Fox was defiant and defended the renewal of Trident as the most "cost-effective way of maintaining Britain's nuclear deterrent". "I had a very good meeting with the Chief Secretary last night and we will continue to discuss the budgetary restraint." U.K. prime minister David Cameron said last month there was a case for "bearing down" on the cost of Trident, perhaps by reducing the number of nuclear submarines. But Fox told the newspaper: "At current levels of technology, it is very hard to manage a continuous deterrent with three submarines rather than four." BAE Systems PLC (BA.LN) and Rolls-Royce Group PLC (RR.LN) are among the contractors that would build the submarines planned to replace the Vanguard-class vessels that carry the Trident missiles. Full story: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-29/osborne-declines-to-protect-u-k-s-nuclear-arms-from-cuts-in-cabinet-split.html Metro story: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/836596-liam-fox-in-ministry-of-defence-cuts-warning -Berlin Bureau, Dow Jones Newswires; +49 30 288 8410 (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 30, 2010 03:54 ET (07:54 GMT)