In January 2024, the U.S. Air Force notified Congress that the new “Sentinel” Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) program would cost 37% more than expected, putting it in “critical” breach of statutory cost overrun thresholds. That raises the estimated cost of each missile from $118 million to $161 million!
As a result, the estimated cost to build, buy, and operate a Sentinel force of 400 missiles is now approaching $320 billion. On top of that, the government wants to spend another $16 billion for a new nuclear warhead for the missiles. Sentinel is but one part of the $1.5 trillion price tag for the ongoing U.S. nuclear weapons modernization program.
Land-based ICBMs are deployed across vast areas in North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska so that, to attack them, Russia or China would have to use many hundreds of nuclear warheads, making the missile fields to act as a “sponge” for Russian or Chinese nuclear warheads attack. A recent study published in Scientific American found that such an event would cause several million fatalities, from acute radiation alone, across the United States.
Land-based missiles are vulnerable to attacks because of their fixed location and are therefore primed for launch within minutes of a presidential order to ensure they are not destroyed in the ground. Maintaining ICBMs on hair-trigger increases the dangers of false alarms and catastrophic miscalculation.
ICBMs are not necessary to deter a nuclear attack by Russia or China. The United States has more than 1,000 nuclear warheads on invulnerable strategic ballistic missile submarines at sea. Just one sub, which carries 20 missiles loaded with 100 nuclear warheads, each with a yield of 90 kilotons or more, could devastate a large country and kill tens of millions of people.
The United States also has long-range, nuclear-armed bombers that can be airborne ahead of a surprise nuclear attack.
Enough is enough!
Please write to your congressional representatives now and tell them the skyrocketing cost of Sentinel is unacceptable. Urge them to repeal outdated legislation that arbitrarily mandates the deployment of 400 ICBMs. Tell them you support proposals to cut the costs of Sentinel, reduce the number of deployed ICBMs, and phase out ICBMs altogether.