{"id":47047,"date":"2019-01-24T16:26:42","date_gmt":"2019-01-24T16:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/01\/24\/heres-how-many-billions-the-us-will-spend-on-nuclear-weapons-over-the-next-decade\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:24:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:24:51","slug":"heres-how-many-billions-the-us-will-spend-on-nuclear-weapons-over-the-next-decade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2019\/01\/24\/heres-how-many-billions-the-us-will-spend-on-nuclear-weapons-over-the-next-decade\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s how many billions the US will spend on nuclear weapons over the next decade"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 If the U.S. carries out all of its plans for modernizing and maintaining<\/a> the nuclear arsenal, it will cost $494 billion over the next decade, an average of just less than $50 billion per year, a new government estimate<\/a> has found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number, part of a biannual estimate put out by the Congressional Budget Office, is 23 percent over the previous estimate<\/a> of $400 billion released in 2017. That 2017 figure was a 15 percent increase over the 2015 number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number will likely grab attention in Congress, especially on the House Armed Services Committee, where new Chairman Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., has made it clear he\u2019s looking for ways to save money by cutting nuclear costs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Told of the new estimate, ranking member Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, acknowledged the topic as a possible partisan friction point and defended nuclear modernization as worth the cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I believe all the previous estimates have been is that at no point does it take more than 7 percent of the defense budget \u2014 and from my standpoint, it\u2019s upon which most of our defense efforts are based,\u201d Thornberry said. \u201cI have no doubt it will be a topic we discuss this year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just more than half of that increase, however, is based on a technicality, driven by the fact that this projection covers two years later than the 2017 projection did, and a number of modernization programs will be further along \u2014 and hence costlier. Overall, the $494 billion figure represents roughly 6 percent of overall projected defense spending during that time period.<\/p>\n\n\n\t