![]() ![]() Boeing subsequently proposed to team up with Northrop, but Northrop has so far refused to do so. ![]() Boeing’s exit leaves Northrop Grumman as the only company competing for the contract. ![]() Meanwhile, Boeing announced in July that it would not bid on the contract for the ground-based strategic deterrent program. In contrast, the Republican-led Senate provided additional funding above the Air Force’s request for the new ICBM program and supporting efforts, setting up a clash between the two chambers on the issue as they work to reconcile their versions of the defense authorization and appropriations bills in the coming weeks. A price tag of over $100 billion would make it one of the Pentagon’s costliest planned acquisition programs.Ĭiting concerns about the need for and ability to execute the ground-based strategic deterrent program as planned, the fiscal year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and defense appropriations bill passed by the Democratic-led House this summer eliminated the Pentagon’s funding request to proceed to the main development phase of the program.īoth bills also halved the funding request to replace the W78 ICBM warhead - one of two ICBM warheads - and reduced the Energy Department’s request to expand the production of plutonium pits in support of the warhead replacement program. The Defense Department completed another independent cost estimate of the program in June, but has yet to disclose whether the projected cost has changed. The Air Force initially estimated the cost of the new ICBM program at $62 billion, but the Pentagon in August 2016 set the estimated acquisition cost at $85 billion - at the lower end of an independent Pentagon cost estimate that put the price tag as high as $150 billion. The service is seeking to make significant capability upgrades as part of the recapitalization program, known as the ground-based strategic deterrent. The remaining missiles would be used for test flights and as spares. The plan, which began under the Obama administration, is to purchase 666 new missiles, 400 of which would be operationally deployed through 2070. The Air Force is aiming to replace the Minuteman III missile and its supporting launch control facilities and command-and-control infrastructure. ![]() This effort has resulted in expanded targeting options and improved accuracy and survivability. The Pentagon last conducted a major upgrade of the missile in the early 2000s, spending over $7 billion to keep it reliable through 2030. But the missile today is the product of decades of continuous enhancement. The Minuteman III was designed in the 1960s and entered service in the 1960s and 1970s. The Air Force also maintains 50 extra missile silos in a “warm” reserve status, meaning the silos no longer contain ICBMs. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana and Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota. Air Force currently deploys about 400 single-warhead Minuteman III ICBMs at three locations: F.E. security - by continuing to rely on a smaller number of existing Minuteman III missiles. Instead of proceeding with current plans to build an entirely new ICBM system at a cost that is likely to exceed $100 billion, the Pentagon could save scores of billions - without sacrificing U.S. ![]()
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