Maintaining America’s nuclear arsenal will cost $634 billion over 10 years, according to a report published Monday by the Congressional Budget Office. The projected cost is $140 billion, or 28%, higher that CBO’s previous estimate, which covered 2019-2028. About half of the increase is the result of the timeframe shifting to include “two later (and more expensive) years of development in nuclear modernization programs,” CBO said.
The estimate includes $83 billion in projected cost overruns, based on rates that costs for similar programs have grown in the past, CBO said.
The Hill’s Rebecca Kheel notes that the United States is in the midst of plans to modernize all three legs of the nuclear triad — air, sea and land — that the Government Accountability Office has projected could cost $1.7 trillion over 30 years.
