CBO Report: Updating And Sustaining America's Nuclear Arsenal Will Cost $1.2 Trillion Over 30 Years

An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) streaks through the sky of Vandenberg in California, August 25, 2005. The U.S. test fired its second ICBM in a week on Thursday. REUTERS

New York Times: Trump Plans for Nuclear Arsenal Require $1.2 Trillion, Congressional Review States

The report from the Congressional Budget Office was an authoritative accounting of the cost of rebuilding a nuclear arsenal that relies on Cold War-era technology.

The price tag of President Trump’s vision of remaking the American nuclear arsenal soared on Tuesday as a new government estimate put the cost of a 30-year makeover at $1.2 trillion, more than 20 percent higher than earlier figures.

The rebuilding proposal includes the nation’s nuclear weapons, bombers, missiles and submarines.

The report from the Congressional Budget Office was the most authoritative accounting yet of the full cost of rebuilding an aging, potentially vulnerable nuclear arsenal that often relies on Cold War-era technology. It was published just weeks before the Pentagon is supposed to issue its first broad nuclear strategy of the Trump administration, an assessment called the Nuclear Posture Review.

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, who had been a skeptic about the need to preserve the nuclear force’s 400 land-based missiles, in silos across the American West, said in September that he had changed his view and now believed it was necessary to preserve them.

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WNU Editor: The CBO report can be read here .... Approaches for Managing the Costs of U.S. Nuclear Forces, 2017 to 2046

More News On The $1.2 Trillion COst Of Updating And Sustaining America's Nuclear Arsenal Over 30 Years

CBO Says $1.2 Trillion Needed for Nuclear Weapons Overhaul -- US News and World Report/AP
US nuclear arsenal to cost $1.2tn over next 30 years, independent CBO report finds -- The Guardian
CBO: Updating, sustaining nuclear arsenal would cost $1.2T over 30 years -- The Hill
Modernizing America's nuclear arsenal would cost $1.2 trillion, CBO says -- PBS NewsHour
The $1.2 Trillion Question: Modernizing America's Nuclear Arsenal -- The National Interest Online

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