Image source: topwar.ru
When launching the new Sentinel ICBM program, the Pentagon initially planned to place them in already constructed silos housing Minuteman III nuclear missiles. However, the situation has changed.
- stated in the Air Force.
As indicated in the Defense One publication, this means that hundreds of new silo launchers will have to be built – we are talking about 400 ICBMs, which are deployed at missile ranges in Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and Wyoming.
To date, the cost of the Sentinel program has already amounted to about $141 billion, which exceeded the previously estimated figures. The Pentagon cited the need to deploy infrastructure and a complex PU device as the reasons for its growth.
The decision to build new mines was made after the completion of the project to re-equip the test launch complex at the Vandenberg base in California. As explained in the Air Force, this approach, previously considered "cost-effective and efficient," carries risks and leads to a significant increase in costs and time, and therefore is impractical.
Image source: topwar.ru
As noted in the publication, Northrop Grumman, the sole contractor of the program, is to blame for this, as it underestimated the complexity of the mine conversion.
- Mackenzie Knight of the Nuclear Information Project suggests, implying fraud on the part of one of the leading American contractors.
