Pentagon aims to spend $167bn on nuclear weapons over five years

Washington — The Pentagon’s five-year nuclear weapons plan calls for requesting at least $167bn to the end of 2025 — building from the $29bn sought for 2021 to $38bn, according to previously undisclosed figures.

The commitment includes research, development, procurement, sustainment and operations. It reflects a major boost to an effort started under former president Barack Obama to replace ageing nuclear systems, such as Minuteman III missiles and command and control systems.

It does not include funding for the energy department’s National Nuclear Security Administration, which is requesting $19.8bn for fiscal 2021, including $15.6bn for nuclear weapons activities.

Congressional Democrats have been generally supportive of increased nuclear weapons spending, but defence secretary Mark Esper is likely to be questioned about the size and scope of the five-year plan when he testifies before the house armed services committee on Wednesday.

Esper is also likely to face bipartisan opposition from the defence-focused committee on President Donald Trump’s plan to shift $3.8bn from Pentagon programmes to building his wall on the Mexican border.

The defence department’s five-year plan on nuclear programmes calls for $29bn for fiscal 2021, $30bn in 2022 and $33bn in 2023, before jumping to $37bn in 2024 and $38bn in 2025. The plan includes $25bn for research and procurement, but not support and operations for, the new Columbia-class intercontinental ballistic missile submarine that begins construction this year, $24bn for improved nuclear command and control and $23bn for the air force’s B-21 bomber.

“What you are seeing here is the beginning of a long overdue modernisation of the US nuclear triad,” said Tim Morrison, a former National Security Council deputy assistant who followed nuclear issues and is now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. “At about 6% of the US defence budget, this is a modest investment in the ultimate guarantee of American and allied security.”

Still, “most experts believe the DOD [department of defence] budget will be fairly flat over the next several years”, so “if spending on the nuclear weapons enterprise increases by $9bn over that time, and totals $167bn, what are the trade-offs in other procurement programmes?” asked Amy Woolf, a senior nuclear weapons specialist for the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. “What will the Pentagon have to give up to support this increase” in funding for nuclear weapons?

Bloomberg