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Enhanced UK-US collaboration on nuclear weapons to remain secret

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, March 3, IRNA -- The British government is refusing to disclose details of its enhanced collaboration with the US on the country's nuclear weapons or say whether the agreement allows the UK to participate in Washington's Reliable Replacement Warhead program.

"I am withholding the information about the detailed nature of these enhanced collaboration, in the interests of national security," Defense Secretary John Hutton said.

In a written parliamentary reply published Tuesday, Hutton only went as far as confirming that 'enhanced collaborations are taking place' under the UK's renewed Mutual Defense Agreement (MDA) in support of the UK's nuclear stockpile stewardship program.

These, he told MPs, 'contribute to the ongoing review of warhead options announced in the 2006 White Paper -- 'The Future of the United Kingdom's Nuclear Deterrent (CMD 6994)'.

Last month, it was reported that the US military has been using Britain's Atomic Weapons Establishment for 'very valuable' warhead research as part of an ongoing and secretive deal between the British and American governments, which campaign groups say is in breach of the NPT and undermine the UK's claim to have an independent nuclear weapons program.

In 2004, the UK extended is MDA with the US for a further 10 year. In addition, former prime minister Tony Blair exchanged letters with former US president George W Bush in December 2006 on enhanced collaboration.

Hutton insisted that the MDA renewal made 'no extension to its scope' either then or since when asked if there had been any amendment to enable co-operation on the US Reliable Replacement Warhead program.

But he admitted that there were a 'number of similarities in approach between the Atomic Weapons Establishment and their counterparts in the United States national laboratories', including the management of research, the assessment of technology readiness, and the fundamentals of science-based stockpile stewardship in the absence of underground nuclear tests.

"However, our warheads are based on a wholly UK design and differ from US warheads in a number of areas," the defense minister told MPs.