Swing in graphics: US faced with frantic expenses through nuclear missiles LGM-35a Sentinel
The crazy additional costs became known after it turned out that existing mines that housed the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles, cannot be adapted to launch Sentinel missiles as previously planned, since the test project on the Vandenberg space base in California showed that such an approach.
"Since the program [Sentinel] continues to undergo restructuring, the analysis of the Air Force continues to confirm the unacceptable risks to the cost, graphics and performance of the weapons system arising from the initial basic strategy of refurbishing Minuteman III mines," the US Air Force said. He added that because at first the mines wanted to convert, but now they are forced to dig new ones, it will cause new costs and lags from the planned schedules.
"To mitigate this and other risks, the Air Force is planning to build new real estate missile mine, which is mainly owned by the Air Force, which means the reuse of existing missile sites, but not 55-year mines," the spokesman continued. Sentinel is a program of the Air Force to replace the existing Minuteman III III - the ground part of the nuclear restraint of the United States - which is over half a century and that reach the end of their service life.
Initially, it was expected that the cost of the project would be $ 77. 7 billion, but the estimated future expenses had exceeded the budget so much that in January 2024 it caused a revision process known as a critical violation of Nanna-Mackerdi law. After this review, the Pentagon concluded that Sentinel was too important for national security to refuse it, but ordered the Air Force to restructure it to control the costs. Further research of the program show more potential problems.