Senators call out Sentinel delays, overruns in WSJ op-edTwo Republican Senators, both senior members of influential defense committees, on Friday published an op-ed airing concerns that U.S. nuclear modernization is lagging behind its adversaries, particularly the LGM-35 Sentinel.

Senators Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) the top Republican on the SASC Strategic Forces Subcommittee, published their grievances in a joint opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal. 

The move was spurred by a Pentagon announcement last week that the Sentinel program’s modernization cost has grown to over $107 billion, a 37 percent increase over prior estimates. The Pentagon cited greater-than-expected construction needs, supply-chain challenges, labor shortages, and inflation as the main drivers for the cost increase.

On Jan. 18, the Pentagon notified Congress that Sentinel breached its Nunn-McCurdy cost threshold, which is not unusual for such complex defense modernization programs. Sentinel, which will replace the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile, is scheduled to enter service in mid-2029, but high-ranking officials up to Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall have admitted under oath that it is unlikely to reach initial operating capability by that date. 

“Sentinel would be the largest U.S. government civil works project since the completion of the interstate highway system in the 1990s,” the Senators wrote. “Drawing on initiatives from more than 50 government agencies and across 45 states, it is the most complex acquisition program the Air Force has ever undertaken.”

“Attempting anything on such a scale is fraught with risk, so the Air Force’s announcement that Sentinel is suffering cost overruns and potential delays isn’t surprising,” they said. “For a decade, defense experts have cautioned about the logistical, technical and resourcing challenges facing the necessary replacement for the Minuteman III.”