Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made towards equipping UK armed forces with nuclear weapon capability additional to the submarine continuous at-sea deterrent.

The United Kingdom will purchase 12 F-35A aircraft and join NATO’s Dual Capable Aircraft (DCA) nuclear mission. This is not a decision to acquire a second sovereign delivery system, and the nuclear weapons allocated to the NATO DCA mission are United States nuclear weapons which remain under US custody and control.

The UK will continue to rely on its four nuclear deterrent submarines. A submarine based deterrent system has served the UK well for decades, providing the assured second-strike capability that is the foundation of the UK’s national security, and we expect a submarine-based approach will continue to offer a high level of capability.