Skyrocketing cost of US nuclear missile program spurs reckoning

In the last years of the Obama administration, a debate rippled across Washington. The U.S. could continue life-extending the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which at the time had been deployed for close to 50 years, or modernize the system in a major overhaul.

Facing pressure from lawmakers, then-President Obama in 2016 elected to modernize the entire nuclear triad: land-based ICBMs, submarines and bomber planes.

While the estimated trillion-dollar price tag drew headlines, the actual cost of the unprecedented effort could far exceed that amount, given the ICBM modernization now called Sentinel - continues driving up costs.