was awarded a total of $848 million in contracts to perform this and related work, which also includes upgrading the missiles' reentry systems. On the same day, Draper Labs was awarded $318 million for upgrade of the guidance system. Then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair outlined plans in Parliament on 4 December 2006 to build a new generation of submarines (Dreadnought-class) to carry existing Trident missiles, and join the D5LE project to refurbish them. The first flight test of a D-5 LE subsystem, the MK 6 Mod 1 guidance system, in Demonstration and Shakedown Operation (DASO)-23, took place on on 22 February 2012. This was almost exactly 22 years after the first Trident II missile was launched from Tennessee in February 1990. D5LE2 (D5 Life Extension Program 2) US Navy Vice Admiral Johnny Wolfe, in charge of overall submarine weapons systems procurement, indicated in 2020 that he had initiated trade studies to apply lessons from the D5LE program to extend the Trident II's lifespan to 2084. Wolfe said he expected the first D5LE2 missiles to be deployed aboard the ninth Columbia-class submarine by FY 2039. Conventional Trident The Pentagon proposed the Conventional Trident Modification program in 2006 to diversify its strategic options, as part of a broader long-term strategy to develop worldwide rapid strike capabilities, dubbed "Prompt Global Strike". The US$503 million program would have converted existing Trident II missiles (presumably two missiles per submarine) into conventional weapons, by fitting them with modified Mk4 reentry vehicles equipped with GPS for navigation update and a reentry guidance and control (trajectory correction) segment to perform 10 m class impact accuracy. No explosive is said to be used since the reentry vehicle's mass and hypersonic impact velocity provide sufficient mechanical energy and "effect". The second conventional warhead version is a fragmentation version that would disperse thousands of tungsten rods which could obliterate an area of 3000 square feet (approximately 280 square meters). It offered the promise of accurate conventional strikes with little warning and flight time. The primary drawback of using conventionally armed ballistic missiles is being virtually indistinguishable by radar warning systems from nuclear armed missiles. This leaves open the likelihood that other nuclear-armed countries might mistake it for a nuclear launch which could provoke a counterattack. For that reason among others, this project raised a substantial debate before US Congress for the FY07 Defense budget, but also internationally. Russian President Vladimir Putin,