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In this report, Todd Harrison and Evan Braden Montgomery focus on the central—albeit sometimes implicit—question at the heart of these studies: how much money could the United States actually save through nuclear reductions?
Taken overall, the CBO estimates compared for example to the similar 2015 study by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, (CSBA) are inflated by a whopping $450 billion...
When the CSBA study came out, the same chorus of nuclear opponents complained modernization was unaffordable and unnecessary even at that price. They lost that argument, and a solid majority of Congress continued to support going forward with the strategic deterrent modernization program, which is the very bedrock for all of U.S. and allied security.
The Air Force hopes to begin fielding an integrated replacement system by the late 2020s, and plans to buy around 600 missiles for just over $50 billion, according to an estimate from Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
Much of the planned modernization is nearly locked in because of the need for new weapons and because some of it is so far along, said Evan Montgomery, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington-based research group.
“It’s kind of like a kid’s Christmas list, in that we want some more manpower in the Army, we want more helicopters, more planes, more this and more that,” said Katherine Blakeley, a defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. “I don’t think that they have a strong idea of how they’re going to get this, given that the BCA is still in effect.”
An August report from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), a non-partisan Washington, D.C., think tank, outlined areas in which the Pentagon could save money when upgrading the nuclear-weapons system.
...Meanwhile, an August 2015 study by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments found that upgrading and maintaining the US nuclear force posture will cost more than $700 billion over the next 25 years.
