$130BILLION on 659 nukes in 450 silos: Inside mission to upgrade US ‘Minuteman III’ arsenal with apocalyptic ‘Sentinels’

10 months ago 8

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THE US have busted through a staggering $131 billion in modernising their nuclear missiles, the Air Force has revealed.

One of their multi-billion dollar projects, dubbed Sentinel, has already seen a whopping $95.8 billion being spent on a hypersonic Minuteman III missile upgrade alone.

Only decades after it was first launched, the US is completely revamping its ICBM[/caption]

The Minuteman III upgrade was tested towards the end of last year[/caption]

Although costs overrun frequently at the Department of Defense, it has been revealed that the Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is especially expensive to replace.

The eye-wateringly expensive replacement program is multi-faceted, including key layers like redesigning, redeveloping and procuring.

In 2020 Northrop won a $13.3 billion contract from the Air Force to develop, design, test and advance the weapon.

An Air Force official has revealed that, as time went on, the understanding of what the weapon should be able to do developed and the costs gradually incurred.

Specifications like square footage increased, as did the modifications within the silo, and new systems with greater power and heating just built on the costs.

The Air Force official said that when you’re dealing with an arsenal of 450 missile silos, any small change is inevitably going to be costly.

Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said “Sentinel is absolutely necessary for the future of our nuclear deterrent.

“I’m committed to conducting vigorous oversight of the program and ensuring the Air Force follows through on making the necessary changes to address the cost overruns.”

Andrew Hunter, assistant secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, claimed that the missiles themselves are not to blame for the cost overrun.

But the cost overrun has accumulated the quickest through the development of the 450 missile silos – and their command infrastructure, which includes 7,500 miles of new cables.

The program has also committed to buying trucks, training, command buildings and 659 missiles.

The missile network is part of the “nuclear triad” – which includes a nuclear-tipped ground-based ICBM, nuclear-capable bomber aircraft and submarine-launched nuclear arms.

“It’s been over 70 years since we did the ground piece of this,” Hunter said.

“We didn’t estimate it well.”

The Air Force now has to notify Congress that the program is at least 37% over the cost estimate finalised in September 2020.

This has triggered the Nunn-McCurdy Act – a 1982 law that requires the Pentagon to justify the importance of a program which has seen costs rise more than 25 per cent above the baseline.

“We’re going to continue to execute the program while the Nunn-McCurdy review is happening,” Hunter said.

“Whether the program’s timeline will shift, that is pursuant to the Office of the Secretary of Defense review.”

The U.S Secretary of Defense has suggested that, by the time of review in the summer, the total program costs could grow further.

The US Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center first made a request for development of a next-generation nuclear ICBM in July 2016.

When the Sentinel was first envisioned, the hypersonic missile included a warhead 20 times the size of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War 2.

An initial test launch was carried out late last year, from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California, in a collaborated effort by the US Air Force and Space Force.

“The purpose of the ICBM test launch is to validate and verify the safety, security, effectiveness, and readiness of the weapon system,” Vandenberg Space Force said in a statement.

“The Airmen and Guardians who perform this vital mission are some of the most skillfully trained and dedicated personnel in America’s Air Force,” Space Launch Delta 30 vice commander Colonel Bryan Titus said.

“These test launches demonstrate the readiness of US nuclear forces and provide confidence in the lethality and effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear deterrent.”