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This is Only a Test

Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May “covered up” a failure of a Trident missile during a test in the Atlantic, opposition politicians allege after learning of the incident from the media. A Royal Navy submarine stationed off the coast of Florida fired the 17 million pound (US$21 million) missile to test a new launch system. The missile was meant to go to a target to the east. Instead, it apparently headed west, toward Florida, and the missile, which had a dummy warhead instead of its usual nuclear payload, was destroyed before it could hit the United States. Britain’s Ministry of Defence said it could not explain what happened for “obvious national security reasons,” but politicians had more to say. “It’s a pretty catastrophic error when a missile goes in the wrong direction,” said Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. “Goodness knows what the consequences of that could have been.” (RC/New York Times, London Guardian) ...Right: they blew an opportunity to “take care of” the “Florida problem.”