Greenpeace delays missile tests

At the third attempt, the British Navy test fired a Trident nuclear missile for the first time from a submarine off the Florida coast on May 26. Two earlier attempts by the submarine, HMS Vanguard, to fire the missile had been disrupted by four Greenpeace inflatable dinghies and a helicopter which converged on the submarine as it attempted to surface.

The test firing cost 18 million pounds (about A$35 million).

Despite the end of the Cold War, Britain's Tory government is pressing ahead with its 15 billion pounds plan to build four 16,000-tonne submarines, carrying a total of 70 US-built Trident missiles. Each missile carries four nuclear warheads.

The Trident plan was originally conceived under Margaret Thatcher's government to ensure Britain's independent capacity to destroy the Soviet Union.

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