New report reveals UK spent $6.8bn on nuclear weapons in 2021

A new report, ‘Squandered: 2021 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending,’ by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) shows that in 2021, the year before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, nine nuclear-armed states spent $82.4 billion on their nuclear weapons, a further increase on 2020 spending.

The report shows that it is not just governments who are responsible for squandering resources on weapons of mass destruction. Companies, lobbyists and think tanks were all part of a vicious cycle of spending, lobbying, and more spending on nuclear weapons in 2021. We’d like to congratulate ICAN on their detailed research and vital contribution to the debate around ‘defence’ spending.

“The United Kingdom spent $12,873 every minute on nuclear weapons in 2021”

Below we reproduce ICAN’s finding on UK spending, but would recommend all to explore the full report for details of individual company lobbying efforts.

The United Kingdom
$6.8 billion

The United Kingdom has 225 nuclear weapons which it can launch from submarines.¹ It cooperates closely with the United States to produce its Trident II D-5 nuclear-capable missiles.

The United Kingdom does not release official detailed costs for its nuclear weapons programme, although analysts have produced estimates based on what data is available. A 2016 Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament report calculated that the overall cost to replace the UK nuclear submarine programme will be £205 billion. ²

A Nuclear Information Service report calculated the average cost per year of the overall program would be £3.4billion. ³ A 2021 National Audit Office report admitted that official projections of nuclear weapons spending costs have been too low, acknowledging that
in the last year, ten-year projected costs grew by £16 billion. ⁴

In a 2018 National Audit Office report, the cost of the defence nuclear enterprise from 2020-2021 were projected as £4.85 billion, which includes £2.101 billion for submarines, £1.225 billion for the missiles and warheads, £755 million for propulsion systems and another £769 million in support programs and other costs. ⁵ The £2.1 billion in reported submarine costs include the nuclear-capable Dreadnought-class submarines, the Astute-class, the Marine Underwater Future Capability (MUFC)-class submarines and “other submarines.” Since ICAN does not include non-nuclear-capable delivery system costs in this report’s estimates, the £2.101 billion reported for submarines was revised to only include the costs for the nuclear-capable Dreadnought-class. ⁶ The annual cost for the Dreadnought programme was reported as £1.85 billion in the 2021 annual Ministry of Defence Major Project Portfolio data. ⁷ We’ve also added in the contingencies reported for the Dreadnought programme and for the general “nuclear deterrent,” amounting to £0.32 billion. ⁸

With this revision, the total estimated cost of the UK nuclear program for 2020-21 comes to £4.9 billion, or $6.8 billion. $6.8 billion is about 10 per cent of 2021 UK defence spending, estimated at $68 billion.⁹

Based on this methodology, and accounting for inflation, the United Kingdom spent about $6.5 billion in 2020 on nuclear weapons.

1. Hans M. Kristensen and Matt Korda, ‘Status of World Nuclear Forces’, Federation of American Scientists, 2022. Accessed: May 20, 2022. Available: https://fas.org/issues/nuclear-weapons/status-world-nuclear-forces/
2. Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, ‘£205 billion: the cost of Trident -’. (accessed May 23, 2022).
3. David Cullen, ‘Trouble Ahead: Risks and Rising
   Costs in the UK Nuclear Weapons Programme’, Apr. 29, 2019. (accessed May 23, 2022).
4. National Audit Office, “The Equipment Plan 2021-2031,” 21 February 2022, Pg. 42. (accessed May 23, 2022).
5. National Audit Office, ‘The Defence Nuclear Enterprise: a landscape review – National Audit Office (NAO) Report’,
   National Audit Office, May 22, 2018. (accessed May 23,2022). The NAO report does not disaggregate the costs for missiles and warheads. It does note that the UK contributes £12 million annually to maintain the missile storage facility.
6. The Astute- and MUFC- class submarines are not nuclear-capable delivery systems, although they play a supporting role for nuclear-capable submarines. See: Cullen, Trouble Ahead.
7. Ministry of Defence, ‘MoD Government Major Projects Portfolio data, 2021’, GOV.UK, Jul. 15, 2021. (accessed May 23, 2022).
8. To calculate the contingencies costs, we added the £200 million reported contingency costs for the Dreadnought programme with one-tenth (corresponding to the percentage of total military spending spent on nuclear weapons) of the £1.2 billion contingencies reported for several capabilities including the “nuclear deterrent.” See: Claire Mills, “Replacing the UK’s strategic nuclear deterrent: progress of the Dreadnought class” House of Commons Library, 2 March 2021, pg. 19, available at: https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-8010/CBP-8010.pdf and HM Treasury, “Spending Round 2019,” September 2019, pg. 13, available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/829177/Spending_Round_2019_web.pdf
9. ‘SIPRI Military Expenditure Database’, Stockholm
   International Peace Research Institute, Apr. 2022. Accessed: May 23, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://milex.sipri.org/sipri.