February 17, 2026 at 8:14 PM
US Air Force sees early 2030s rollout for revamped Sentinel nuclear missile
The LGM-35A ICBM program had its Milestone B status revoked during a Nunn-McCurdy review, but a new decision is expected by the end of 2026.
The LGM-35A Sentinel is expected to replace the Cold War-era Minuteman III program in the 2030s. (U.S. Air Force)The U.S.
Air Force said Tuesday it expects its next-generation LGM-35A Sentinel nuclear missile to reach initial capability in the early 2030s, following a revamp of the over-budget program’s acquisition plan set to finish this year.The Northrop Grumman-made Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile is intended to replace the Cold War-era Minuteman III missiles, which were first introduced more than 50 years ago and are well past their expected service life.But Sentinel’s cost, which was originally expected to be about $77.7 billion, ballooned, largely due to the rising price of constructing a vast network of missile silos and launch control centers, spread out over thousands of miles in the Great Plains region. RELATEDSentinel was on track to cost about $160 billion, well over twice the original estimate, when the Pentagon in January 2024 declared a cost overrun process called a critical Nunn-McCurdy breach and launched a review process. The Sentinel program was also originally expected to reach initial operational capability in 2029, but that deadline first slid to 2030 and is now dropping further behind schedule.In July 2024, the Pentagon decided the LGM-30G Minuteman III replacement was too critical to national security to cancel.