Supply Chain Disruption, Design Delays, Cost Overruns Cloud US ‘Nuclear Triad’ Upgrades: Pentagon Officials

President Joe Biden’s $863 billion fiscal year 2024 (FY24) defense budget request includes $23.8 billion for the U.S. Department of Energy to produce nuclear weapons and manage the nation’s strategic stockpile and $37.7 billion for the Pentagon to operate its “nuclear enterprise.”
That “nuclear enterprise” is the United States’ land-air-sea “triad” strategic force posture—intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), strategic bombers, and “boomer” submarines armed with submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs).
All three “triad” legs are being upgraded in a “once-in-a-generation modernization” with the Sentinel ICBM replacing the Minute Man III, the December 2022 introduction of the B-21 strategic bomber, and a 12-ship fleet of new Columbia-class SLBM “boomers” to succeed the Navy’s 14-ship Ohio-class submarine force by 2030….}