Sentinel’s Cost Explosion To Force Hard Choices In USAF Planning

LGM-35A static test firing

The U.S. Air Force conducted the first full-scale static test firing of one of the LGM-35A Sentinel solid rocket motors at Northrop Grumman’s facility in Promontory, Utah, in March 2023.

Credit: R. Nial Bradshaw/U.S. Air Force
The Pentagon’s new intercontinental ballistic missile will force the U.S. Air Force to overhaul its budget plans in the long term, as the costs for the LGM-35A Sentinel have exploded by 81% over the original estimation. That was the finding of a seven-month review of the Northrop Grumman program...
Brian Everstine

Brian Everstine is the Pentagon Editor for Aviation Week, based in Washington, D.C. Before joining Aviation Week in August 2021, he covered the Pentagon for Air Force Magazine. Brian began covering defense aviation in 2011 as a reporter for Military Times.

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