DoD rejiggers $96 billion Sentinel ICBM program to minimize delay

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department and the Air Force have taken actions to minimize a delay in $96 billion Sentinel ICBM acquisition program caused by supply chain and workforce issues at prime contractor Northrop Grumman, a senior DoD official said today.

“This remains absolutely one of the department’s top priorities, so that we have a sustainable ICBM leg [of the nuclear triad],” Deborah Rosenblum, assistant secretary for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs, told the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee. “As of now, we believe we’re still aiming for this threshold objective date of 2030, but it would be premature to let you know the degree to which these particular actions will move the schedule further to the left.”

The Air Force’s previous “threshold objective” (read: timeline with wiggle room) for declaring initial operating capability with nine missiles on alert was 2029.

Rosenblum elaborated that there “have been a number of constructive recommendations” made by the Air Force to Pentagon acquisition czar Bill LaPlante “by way of buying things [as] long lead items, and a variety of different acquisition mechanisms that he has approved last night.”

In addition, she said, DoD has “used to full effect the Defense Production Act in giving the Sentinel program the DX rating, which means, with suppliers, it will be preferrenced. And we are also working hard along with the Air Force with regards to some of the workforce challenges. So, it is really a combined OSD and Air Force effort to make sure that this program remains on track.”

The LGM-35A Sentinel is being developed to replace the US fleet of 400 aging Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles, a high priority for the Pentagon — with strong bipartisan backing in Congress — because of China’s rapid modernization of its own nuclear arsenal. US Strategic Command in February revealed that China now has more ICBM launchers than the US military, although not as many actual missiles or warheads.

“China is engaged in a significant, fast-paced expansion and modernization of its nuclear forces,” John Plumb, DoD assistant secretary for space policy, told the subcommittee today.

The Pentagon’s fiscal 2024 budget request includes $4.3 billion for Sentinel research, development and procurement, about $700 million more than the sum enacted in the FY23 defense appropriation.

The spending on Sentinel is part of a package of $37.7 billion DoD intends to spend on modernizing nuclear delivery systems and infrastructure across the board, about $3.3 billion more than the department’s FY23 request, Plumb explained.

“These investments will ensure that each leg of the triad is modernized and has the needed adaptability and flexibility to address a changing threat environment for the coming decades,” he said.

It also includes, according to Plumb:

• “More than $7 billion to sustain and recapitalize the Nuclear Command, Control and Communications architecture, NC3″;
• $6.2 billion for the Navy’s Columbia class ballistic missile submarine, with the service hoping to buy in FY24 the second of a planned 12 subs;
• $5.3 billion for the Air Force’s B-21 Raider stealth bomber;
• $1 billion for the Air Force’s Long-Range Stand-Off (LRSO) cruise missile; and
• $456 million for “the life extension” of the Trident II D-5 submarine-launched ballistic missile.

Meanwhile, the Energy Department has asked for another $23.8 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Jill Hruby, NNSA administrator told the subcommittee. This is an increase of $1.7 billion over last year’s appropriation, she said, and “reflects current national security priorities and remains consistent with the Nuclear Posture Review and other administration policies and strategies.”

NNSA funds development and stockpiling of nuclear warheads, and maintains the US nuclear weapons laboratories. It also works on technologies for verifying arms control agreements and keeping tabs on proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

“The budget request supports the five ongoing weapon modernization programs, two Phase One exploratory efforts, and enhances cybersecurity for our networks and digital assurance of our weapons and enterprise,” Hruby explained.

These include B61-12 gravity bomb for the Air Force, and the W88 Alt 370 warhead for the Trident II D5 missile, which she noted are “in full scale production and are achieving planned deployment schedules.”

It also includes the W80-4 warhead for the LRSO, the W87-1, which will replace the legacy W78 on the ICBM fleet, and the W-93 for the Navy’s ballistic missile submarine force — all of which Hruby said “are making significant progress.”

Finally, she said, NNSA’s “investments in pit production have advanced the ability to produce 80 pits per year as close to 2030 as possible.”

However, a number of lawmakers raised serious concerns about the pace of both DoD and NNSA nuclear weapon activities, including subcommittee ranking member Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., and Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif.

Moulton fretted that the NNSA’s uranium processing facility is “$2 billion over cost” and delayed by “up to two years.” Further, he added, plans for plutonium pit production “at the rate DoD requires have been delayed again by years until the mid- to late-2030s. And we won’t know how much it will realistically cost until 2025.”

Garamendi had even harsher criticism, noting that all of the programs across the DoD and NNSA nuclear enterprise have been plagued with delays and cost overruns.

“I’m just trying to get my head around all the happy talk that I’ve heard. The fact of the matter is every single one of these systems are behind schedule and over budget, every single one of them,” he said emphatically.

“The happy talk from each and every one of you doesn’t get down to the detail. I’m going to delay my questions until we can get into a classified session when we can get past the happy talk and get down to details,” Garamendi concluded.