https://www.airandspaceforces.com/air-force-orders-halt-some-work-sentinel-icbm/

Feb. 11, 2025 | By Chris Gordon

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The suspension comes as the service is working on a plan to restructure the program following significant cost and schedule overruns that triggered a review and required certification from the Secretary of Defense to continue.

“Due to evolving launch facility (LF) requirements in the Command & Launch segment, the Air Force directed the Northrop Grumman Corporation (NGC) to suspend the design, testing, and construction work related to the Command & Launch Segment” of Sentinel, an Air Force spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

The order to halt work covers the “LF Standard Design,” which is the baseline design for all planned operational Sentinel launch facilities. The directive also covers work on several sites used for testing, evaluation, and training, the spokesperson said.

The Air Force gave no hint on when the suspension might be lifted.

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Air Force and defense officials have said the missile is on track, but the infrastructure would be a significant civil engineering effort.

“I think the part that’s probably missed or lost is the scope and scale,” deputy commander of Air Force Global Strike Command Lt. Gen. Michael J. Lutton told Air & Space Forces Magazine during a visit to an unarmed Minuteman III test at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., last November. “When you look at modernizing that infrastructure … it’s close to 500 facilities across an area of about 33,000 square miles, about the size of the state of South Carolina, and that’s going to be intra-netted. There’s an underground command and control network that connects all that across five states. So, when one looks at that, that’s highly complex.”