US Nuclear Weapons Upgrade Costs Soar by Nearly $18Bln

The US government’s 25-year plan to upgrade its nuclear arsenal is now estimated to cost $293 billion, an increase of nearly $18 billion on the 2014 estimate, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The new estimate is an increase of $17.6 billion, or 6 percent, from a previous GAO estimate last year.

“The National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) 25-year budget estimates for modernizing the nuclear security enterprise… totals $293.4 billion,” GAO said on Thursday.

The United States has launched an enormous quarter century program to completely upgrade or replace the entire US strategic nuclear weapons stockpile and their delivery systems.

The US Government Accountability Office is an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress and investigates how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars.