Undisclosed delays plague atomic programs, cost billions to fix – By John M. Donnelly (Roll Call) / March 20 2020
The new NNSA budget request is the latest example of the agency’s long-running problems
The Trump administration wants $3.1 billion more this year than last for the Energy Department’s nuclear weapons budget, but internal government documents show the raise is devoted substantially to covering previously undisclosed cost overruns and avoiding years of new delays in the majority of U.S. atomic weapons programs.
The administration has sold the 25 percent budget boost for the National Nuclear Security Administration only in broad terms as necessary to maintain America’s nuclear deterrent. However, the additional funds are needed not so much to advance capabilities as merely to keep troubled programs from falling further behind, according to the “official use only” correspondence obtained by CQ Roll Call.
Specifically, four of the NNSA’s six highest-profile atomic arms programs would be delayed unless the NNSA gets a record budget of nearly $20 billion in fiscal 2021 and maintains that higher level in the years that follow. The subset of the fiscal 2021 request that would go to weapons programs would total $15.6 billion, compared to $12.5 billion in the current fiscal year.
The new NNSA budget request is the latest example of the agency’s long-running inability to foresee the cost and complexity of its projects, critics say. The fiscal 2021 budget request was the fourth consecutive one that came in higher than had been planned the previous year.
If the pattern continues going forward, it could create additional multi-billion-dollar budget hikes and, more importantly, could jeopardize the schedule for recapitalizing not just atomic warheads and bombs but also the new subs, aircraft and missiles that would carry them — a $1.2 trillion endeavor spanning three decades.
Continue to article: https://www.rollcall.com/2020/03/20/undisclosed-delays-plague-atomic-programs-cost-billions-to-fix/
