The DoD’s chief weapons buyer Frank Kendall told U.S. Air Force Secretary Deborah James in a memo on Aug. 23 that a new intercontinental ballistic missile to replace the Minuteman III will cost at least $85 billion to develop and field.
By A1C Yvonne Morales [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
The number, generated by the Pentagon’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office, is to be revised by “March 2018 once missile designs are more advanced, technical risks are reduced and the service has a better understanding of overall costs.”
The major concerns are inflation assumptions and the defense industry’s capability to produce the missiles, Bloomberg reported. The last time the U.S. tried to develop a new ICBM was back in the 1980s.