The U.S. Congressional Budget Office released a report in 2021, including CBO’s forecasts for the period from 2021 to 2030. It is estimated that the US nuclear force will require US$634 billion in funding over the next ten years. This number is quite astonishing. You must know that the total U.S. military expenditure in 2021 will only be 801 billion US dollars.
Nuclear power is a very expensive thing, especially in the United States. The nuclear triad built during the Cold War in the United States mainly consisted of the "Ohio"-class nuclear submarine capable of launching submarine-launched ballistic missiles, Minuteman-3 land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, B-2A and B-52H strategic bombers, and aircraft carrying It consists of nuclear aerial bombs, fighter jets, and equipped nuclear warheads. After the end of the Cold War, the United States did not build new nuclear weapons or delivery systems. Instead, it chose to maintain or extend the life of existing nuclear weapons. The main reason was that it was too expensive.
At present, most of the United States' nuclear weapons equipment is approaching the end of its service life, and the service life of some missile systems may not be extended. Over the next 20 years, if the United States is to continue fielding these capabilities, essentially all of these systems will have to be refurbished or replaced with new systems developed.
According to estimates by the U.S. Congressional Budget Office, if the nuclear force development plans proposed in the current budget requests of the U.S. Department of Defense and Department of Energy are implemented, it is expected that the total funding for nuclear forces during the period 2021-2030 will require a total of $634 billion (including $4050 for the Department of Defense) billion, accounting for about 64%. The Department of Energy is US$229 billion, accounting for about 36%, as shown in Figure 1), which will exceed US$60 billion per year on average.
Figure 1: The estimated funding for nuclear forces in the next ten years between the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy will account for
html Nearly two-thirds of the US$1,634 billion will be borne by the Department of Defense. The Department of Defense's largest future nuclear force expenditures will be the "Columbia" class ballistic missile nuclear submarines and "Sentinel" land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles. DOE costs will primarily go to nuclear weapons laboratories and support activities.
Table 1 U.S. Congressional Budget Office’s estimated total funding for U.S. nuclear forces in 2021–2030 (unit: billions of dollars)
As can be seen from Table 1, if historical funding growth is not taken into account, the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy before 2030 Maintaining nuclear forces will require $551 billion (as shown in Figure 2), which will be used for the following projects:
- strategic nuclear weapons systems ($297 billion). includes the Department of Defense's triad strategic nuclear delivery system maintenance and research and development, the Department of Energy's nuclear warhead maintenance and research and development activities, and the Department of Energy's nuclear power research and development support and maintenance for the ballistic missile submarine .
- Tactical Nuclear Weapons System ($17 billion). Including the Department of Defense’s nuclear and regular combat aircraft (F-15, F-35, etc.), the Department of Energy’s nuclear aerial bombs and space-based nuclear warheads, and sea-based nuclear cruise missiles and their warheads (the Biden administration’s fiscal year 2023 budget has suspended this Project)
- Department of Energy Nuclear Weapons Laboratory Operations and Support Activities ($142 billion). Includes funding for activities at nuclear weapons laboratories and production facilities. The research and development activities at these laboratories are not directly directed toward a specific type of nuclear warhead, but are critical to maintaining current and future nuclear warhead inventories. It also includes the modernization of several facilities that produce weapons-grade nuclear materials and components.
- Department of Defense command and control communications and early warning systems ($94 billion). This system is used to ensure communication between nuclear combat commanders and nuclear forces, issue commands to control their use, provide early warning of incoming attacks, and eliminate false alarms.
Figure 2: Main expenditures for nuclear forces of the Department of Defense and Department of Energy in the next ten years
In 2019, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the total funding requirements for U.S. nuclear forces from 2019 to 2028, which was US$494 billion. The latest estimate increased by 28 %, reaching US$140 billion.
The main reasons for the substantial increase in funding include: First, the Department of Energy's new production facility modernization plan has significantly increased funding requirements.Second, the two years after 2028 are the period when the Ministry of National Defense modernization project will be fully put into production, and the demand for funds will be huge. The third is economic inflation and other reasons.
