According to Defense News weekly, four years ago the planned expenditure for this purpose was almost $10 billion less.
The US Department of Defense has increased to $95.8 billion the anticipated cost of deploying new land-based nuclear missiles. This was reported by Defense News weekly on Tuesday with reference to sources in the Pentagon. According to his data, the planned costs have increased by almost $10 billion compared to the “estimate” four years ago.
New intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) will replace Minuteman III, which has been in service for the past 50 years. Their deployment, the weekly writes, will be part of an almost complete replacement of the US nuclear arsenal to be implemented over the next few decades. According to preliminary estimates, the programme implementation will cost $1.2 trillion.
Some senior Pentagon officials believe that U.S. national security can be achieved without ICBMs, but the administration of President Donald Trump does not share this view. They confirmed a strong commitment to the plans to deploy a new generation of ICBMs as outlined in the 2018 US Nuclear Posture Review.
According to U.S. experts, the U.S. Army has about 400 Minuteman IIIs in service, each with a 300 or 335 kiloton nuclear charge. They are on combat duty at bases Malmstrom (Montana), Maino (North Dakota) and Francis Warren (Wyoming). An additional 50 mines are on standby: they can immediately deploy ballistic missiles if required. The Pentagon hoped to replace these missiles with new ones by 2036.