WASHINGTON — Certainly one of the U.S. Air Force’s nuclear missile programs is “struggling” and will see costs rise, the service’s secretary said Monday.
Frank Kendall, speaking at a web-based event hosted by the Center for a Latest American Security think tank, said he’s “more nervous” in regards to the LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile than the B-21 Raider stealth bomber. The dual efforts to upgrade the Air Force’s legs of the nuclear triad — each of that are run by Northrop Grumman — are programs that “cannot fail,” he said.
Kendall declined to enter detail in regards to the problems facing Sentinel, citing his recusal from making decisions on this system. Kendall stepped back from the Sentinel and B-21 programs when he became secretary attributable to his previous consulting work with Northrop.
However the vast scope of the Sentinel program — which incorporates real estate development; civil engineering; the creation of each communications and command-and-control infrastructure; and the production of the missile itself — has proved difficult, he said.
“Sentinel is one of the large, complex programs I’ve ever seen,” Kendall said. “It’s probably the most important thing, in some ways, that the Air Force has ever taken on.”
The Air Force awarded Northrop a $13.3 billion contract in 2020 to develop the Sentinel program — then known as the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, or GBSD — to succeed the LGM-30G Minuteman III, which first deployed a half-century earlier. Sentinel is anticipated to cost roughly $100 billion in total.
But within the early stages of this system, Kendall said, there was an excellent deal of uncertainty, particularly on costs. A part of that uncertainty stemmed from the multiple a long time that had elapsed because the Minuteman was created.
Kendall said “unknown unknowns” are surfacing that the department could have to work through, including aspects related to command-and-control infrastructure, corresponding to the complexes that missileers would use to launch the Sentinel.
Kendall said some costs may rise in the method.
“As we get more into this system, as we understand more deeply what we’re actually going to must do, we’re finding some things which are going to cost money,” Kendall said. “We’re attempting to assess how much of an impact that’s going to have and how much adjustments we’re going to must make due to it.”
The Government Accountability Office released a weapons assessment report in June outlining problems with Sentinel that may cause its rollout to slide from 2029 to sometime between April and June 2030.
GAO highlighted lingering staffing shortfalls, supply chain issues and software challenges.
The Minuteman III program that Sentinel will succeed includes 400 missiles in 450 silos across nearly 32,000 square miles.
Kendall added he’s “cautiously optimistic” in regards to the B-21 program. The primary Raider carried out its long-awaited first flight on Nov. 10, and Kendall said it has “got a ways to go on the flight testing.”
The B-21 experienced “minor slips internally,” Kendall said, but has for probably the most part followed the plan he and William LaPlante, now undersecretary of Defense for acquisition and sustainment, put together during their previous tenures within the Pentagon throughout the Obama administration.
On the time, Kendall was undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, and LaPlante served as assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.