Price of US nuclear weapons jumps 25% to nearly $1 trillion by 2034, budget office says
According to the April 24 report, U.S. taxpayers will pay approximately $946 billion over the next decade to sustain, operate, and modernize the country's nuclear weapons; its fleet of bombers, submarines and missiles designed to deliver the weapons; and related support and production infrastructure.
The projection is 25% − or $190 billion − higher than the CBO's last ten-year cost estimate, which covered 2023 to 2032.
More than half of the increase is due to cost overruns, the CBO said. The office pointed to the new Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile project as a major driver of the jump, in addition to smaller increases in other programs and weapons production facilities run by the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Advocates for fewer nuclear weapons pointed to the estimate as a warning about the potential consequences of allowing arms control agreements to quietly expire. But supporters of nuclear modernization contend the U.S. needs an updated arsenal to compete with Russia and China on an increasingly unstable world stage.
In a statement, Arms Control Association executive director Daryl Kimball argued the "skyrocketing costs" of the nuclear arsenal are likely to "go even higher." He highlighted that the CBO estimate does not fully account for recently assessed cost increases to the Sentinel program; a mandatory review in 2024 revealed an 81% increase in the program's price tag.
Kimball said the administration of President Donald Trump should engage China on arms control and take action to maintain nuclear weapons deployment limits set by the New START treaty with Russia, which expires in early 2026.
"Failure to do so will undermine U.S. and global security and could mean that more taxpayer dollars are wasted on weapons of mass destruction rather than programs that meet real human needs," he argued.
The CBO bases its estimates on agency budget proposals and accounts for slight cost overruns that align with an agency's historical patterns.
The nuclear arsenal and its associated costs represent a growing share of the nation's defense budget, which could soon hit $1 trillion a year. The CBO estimates nukes will account for 8.4% of national defense spending between 2025 and 2034, a significant increase compared with 3.9% in the 2014 defense budget.
If you have news tips related to the U.S. nuclear arsenal, please contact Davis Winkie via email at dwinkie@usatoday.com or via the Signal encrypted messaging app at 770-539-3257. Davis Winkie's role covering nuclear threats and national security at USA TODAY is supported by a partnership with Outrider Foundation and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US nuclear weapons get more expensive: $1 trillion by 2034
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
‘You turn 65, you join the club.' U.S. Rep. Richard Neal celebrates anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid Act
WILBRAHAM – U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, celebrated the coming 60th anniversary of the Medicare and Medicaid Act, contrasting the legislative achievement of President Lyndon B. Johnson with the Big Beautiful Bill Act that Neal expects will be reversed over time. This month's legislation will impose $1.2 trillion in cuts, mostly to Medicaid and food stamps, the Associated Press has said. It will impose work requirements on able-bodied people seeking medical care, including some parents and older Americans, making sign-up eligibility more stringent and changing federal reimbursements to states. Neal spoke Monday at Life Care Center of Wilbraham, showing a video of Johnson signing the legislation on July 30, 1965, at the Harry S. Truman Library in Independence, Missouri. The video is available on the website of the LBJ Presidential Library at With 123 beds, about 60% of the center's residents are on Medicaid, said Dennis P. Lopata, senior executive director. Another 10% are covered by Medicare and the rest are private pay. Neal said the recent bill also puts financial pressure on Medicare, the insurance program for the seniors that's an earned benefit. 'You turn 65, you join the club,' Neal said. 'We don't ask about any qualifications.' The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that as a result of the Trump legislation, 11.8 million more Americans would become uninsured by 2034. 'The actual cuts to Medicaid don't take place until after the next election,' said Neal, the ranking Democrat on the House Ways & Means Committee. 'Pretty contrived.' Health care providers and insurers are already under pressure, Neal said. But there is a chance the cuts won't happen. 'My guess is that a lot of them will be – in time – changed. Because they are so unpopular,' said. Electing a Democratic majority in the House would be the way to do it, Neal said. 'Well, if we win next year, which seems likely, I intend to offer legislation to reverse all of those cuts right away across the board. A trillion dollars in cuts to Medicaid over the next 10 years. They can't be sustained.' President Johnson, riding a wave of popularity after the 1964 election, signed the bill in Missouri to honor Truman's work on health care, Neal said. Truman had been a New Deal-era Democratic senator from Missouri before briefing becoming FDR's vice president in 1945, then president. A current Missouri senator, Josh Hawley, has proposed legislation aimed at reversing Medicaid cuts in the Big Beautiful Bill, after voting for that legislation. 'I think a 'no' vote would have been the better vote,' Neal said. Neal also spoke Monday about Social Security. 'We have always repaired Social Security and Medicare, and we always will,' Neal said. 'We intend to propose expanded Social Security benefits, and we will also propose how to pay for it.' Stories by Jim Kinney How much trash does a courthouse produce? Inquiring bidders want to know in Springfield Friendly's parent company sold to NJ franchisee This Springfield eatery, silenced by fire, has a new owner Read the original article on MassLive.
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
US to require up to $15K bond from visitors in new visa trial
Some visitors to the U.S. may soon have to post a bond of up to $15,000 before they are granted a visa to visit the country. In a notice posted to the Federal Register on Monday, the State Department said it would begin a 12-month trial of visa bonds starting in 15 days. The requirement could apply to business and leisure visitors from countries the department identifies as "having high visa overstay rates, where screening and vetting information is deemed deficient," according to the notice. The pilot program will require some visa applicants to post a bond of $5,000-$15,000 to obtain a business or tourist visa to the U.S., and will require applicants to travel via certain U.S. airports, which have not yet been announced. Citizens of Canada, Mexico, and countries that are part of the Visa Waiver Program are exempt from the bond requirement. For those who are required to post a bond, funds will be returned to travelers if they depart in accordance with the terms of their visas. A similar pilot program was launched in November 2020 during the last months of President Donald Trump's first term in office, but it was not fully implemented due to the drop in global travel associated with the pandemic. The State Department was unable to estimate the number of visa applicants who could be affected by the change. Many of the countries targeted by Trump's travel ban also have high rates of visa overstays, including Chad, Eritrea, Haiti, Myanmar and Yemen. USA TODAY reached out to the State Department for additional comment. Numerous countries in Africa, including Burundi, Djibouti, and Togo, also had high overstay rates, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data from fiscal year 2023. Contributing: Reuters
The Hill
2 hours ago
- The Hill
CBO projects ‘big, beautiful bill' would add $5T to deficit if temporary tax cuts extended
The Congressional Budget Office informed Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) in a letter Monday that the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, President Trump's signature domestic policy accomplishment, would add $5 trillion to the deficit over the next decade if its temporary tax relief provisions are extended for a full 10 years. The budget office projects that if temporary tax relief provisions, such as the tax exemption on tipped wages up to $25,000 and the $6,000 senior deduction, are made permanent, it would add another $789 billion to the debt over the next 10 years. That and $718 billion in debt-servicing costs bring the total price tag for Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' to nearly $5 trillion over a decade. The CBO estimates that as a result, the total amount of federal debt held by the public would increase by 11.5 percentage points by the end of 2034. 'Each and every analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office continues to show the same result regardless of how you look at it: this bill explodes the debt by trillions of dollars to fund tax breaks for billionaires,' Merkley said in a statement. 'It is the height of hypocrisy coming from the party that claims to be fiscally responsible,' he said. CBO produced its estimate in response to Merkley's request asking for the budgetary impact of making 10 provisions in Trump's domestic policy law that are due to sunset in the next few years. They include the senior deduction, the tax exemption for tipped income, the tax deduction on overtime income up to $12,500 for individuals and $25,000 for joint-filers, and the tax deduction on auto loans for new cars made in the United States. The CBO noted to Merkley that the Joint Committee on Taxation has estimated that making those 10 provisions permanent would increase primary deficits over the 2025–2034 period by an additional $789 billion. 'That change would increase the cumulative effect on the deficit to $5.0 trillion,' the CBO wrote to Merkley. 'As a result, and net of any changes in borrowing for federal credit programs, CBO estimates that debt held by the public at the end of 2034 would increase by 11.5 percentage points relative to the agency's January 2025 projection of GDP,' it estimated.
