Budget Proposal Contains $300 Million For RRW

A U.S. Defense Department budget proposal for the next two fiscal years includes $300 million for a controversial plan to update  the nuclear warheads in the nation’s stockpile, Inside the Pentagon reported yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 16).

The Pentagon’s anticipates spending $80 million over two years for early work on the Reliable Replacement Warhead, which calls for producing a new, sturdier weapon for the U. S. arsenal, according to the internal documents obtained by InsideDefense.com.  The research and development money would be allocated in a $30 million chunk in fiscal 2008 and a $50 million allotment in fiscal 2009 and would fall under the Navy’s budget.

The Navy would also receive between $52 million and $58. 9 million annually over the next four years for strategic weapons modernization.

Administered by the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Reliable Replacement Warhead program has been promoted as a way to reduce the maintenance required to safely sustain the aging nuclear stockpile.

The early goal is to develop a new submarine-launched ballistic missile (Jason Sherman, Inside the Pentagon, Jan. 25).

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