Pentagon Allows ICBM Upgrade to Proceed After Cost-Overrun Review

After a four-month review process, the U.S. military has received permission to move ahead with its program to build new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), despite repeated cost overruns. The Sentinel ICBM program seeks to replace the U.S. Air Force’s existing fleet of Minuteman III nuclear missiles. In January, the Air Force estimated that the Sentinel program’s cost had grown from about $95 billion to around $125 billion. A later estimate released at a July 8 Pentagon press briefing pushed the figure to $140.9 billion. The cost overrun was high enough to trigger a budgetary oversight measure known as a Nunn-McCurdy review....