
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…