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Nuclear Modernization

NNSA Estimates W87-1 Will Cost Almost $15B, GAO Questions Ready Date

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2020

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NNSA Estimates W87-1 Will Cost Almost $15B, GAO Questions Ready Date

The Air Force test launches a Minuteman III ICBM. Photo: Air Force.

According to a recently declassified report, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) thinks it will cost some $14.8 billion to build W87-1 warheads for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) missiles planned to replace Minuteman III as the land-based leg of the nuclear triad starting around 2030. That could make W87-1 — a newly manufactured copy of the existing W87 design, but with a brand new plutonium-pit trigger — “the most expensive program of this type to date,” the Government…

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