London, June 8 (RHC)-- Great Britain is secretly upgrading its Trident submarine-launched nuclear missile program and creating a new nuclear warhead that is going to cost them about $300 billion U$D, without notifying parliament.  According to a new report made public in London, the new weapon will have “increased accuracy and destructive power and an extended lifetime,” but its costs have not been disclosed.

The British Ministry of Defense announced its development in 2014, but the letter went under the radar.  The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), which builds the U.K.’s nuclear arsenal, has already paid about $1.2 billion for the design alone, and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament estimates that another $300 billion U$D will be required to build the weapon.   

The AWE works in close cooperation with France and the United States on nuclear weapons research and is the target of a month-long blockade in June to disrupt weapons manufacturing. The arsenal factory also came under scrutiny in 2014 for mismanaging nuclear waste.

The British Parliament will table later this year a motion to set aside $60 billion to build a new fleet of four submarines.  One of the U.K.’s top scientists, cited in the report, said it would be “highly relevant” if the designated funds “might be gradually re-deployed in the civil sector.”