The Defence Minister, George Robertson, has admitted that there are serious concerns that year 2000 problems could affect the Trident nuclear missile system. In a letter Mr Robertson says
"A comprehensive audit of the Trident weapons system is not underway." The safety check includes "areas such as the missile and warhead, fire control, navigation, targeting, firing chain, reactor and propulsion control.
He would not disclose how many computer chips in the Trident system were just Commercial Off The Shelf components and how many were specifically designed.
Scottish CND administrator John Ainslie said "We don't want to have a fireworks display of this sort at Faslane on the 1st January 2000. The implications of a catastrophic computer failure on a nuclear submarine are just too horrific to contemplate."
SNP Defence spokesman Colin Campbell said "This is a shocking revelation. Why has nobody taken steps to ensure we wouldn't be faced with this nightmare".
Liberal Democrat MP Menzies Campbell said "George Robertson's letter just underlies the failure of the Government to respond adequately to widespread anxiety about the consequences of the bug"
For more information see
Safety of Trident - a Scottish CND report which shows the results of a Trident accident
BASIC - BASIC report "the bug in the bomb: the impact of the year 2000 problem on nuclear weapons"
Other Year 2000 nuclear weapons links