Global General

UK in talks for France to service nuclear warheads

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-10-08 10:46

LONDON - Britain and France are close to agreeing a deal under which British nuclear warheads would be serviced in a French laboratory, the Financial Times newspaper reported on Friday.

Such a deal, being negotiated while London and Paris are both trying to make major budget cuts, would break with half a century during which the two countries have never collaborated on their independent nuclear deterrents.

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Citing officials in both countries, the FT said that Britain would pay France to service its 160 warheads at the Commissariat a L'Energie Atomique, which maintains French nuclear warheads.

Britain's submarine-launched Trident missiles are based on US technology and such a deal would involve sharing the system's secrets with France. The FT quoted "a person familiar with the negotiations" as saying that Britain had consulted the United States on the proposed agreement.

Britain's coalition government is conducting a defence review and the military budget is set to be cut heavily, along with those of other ministries, when it announces its detailed spending plans on Oct 20.

Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday that the defence review "will match our commitments with the resources we've got. This will mean some big changes".

However, he confirmed that the nuclear deterrent would be renewed based on the Trident missile system. This is expected to cost between 15 and 20 billion pounds ($24-32 billion).