Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the threat that underwater drones and distributed netted sensors pose, as part of the risk reduction and demonstration phase for the Dreadnought Class submarines.

The Ministry of Defence places a high priority on assuring the effectiveness of the United Kingdom's independent nuclear deterrent and managing the associated risk.

We dedicate considerable resource to assessing the threats from emerging capabilities and will apply any necessary mitigation throughout the lifetime of the nuclear deterrent to combat these threats.