CBO: Obama nuke plan costs $1.2T over 30 years

The Congressional Budget Office in a new report estimates the Obama administration's 2017 plans to finance nuclear forces would cost $1.2 trillion -- in fiscal year 2017 dollars -- over three decades, including $400 billion to modernize them and $800 million to operate and sustain them.  

The non-partisan arm of Congress assessed nine options to reduce costs or delay some capabilities, including: delay a new intercontinental ballistic missile, new bomber, and interoperable warheads; forgo a new nuclear cruise missile; jettison the plan for nuclear bombs; field 10 Columbia-class submarines and 300 ICBMs; field a dyad without bombers; field a dyad without ICBMs; field a 1,000 warhead triad; field a 1,000 warhead dyad without bombers; field a 1,000 warhead dyad without ICBMs. 

The report breaks down total nuclear costs between 2017 and 2046:

• $772 billion would be allocated for the operation, sustainment, and modernization of strategic nuclear delivery systems and weapons -- the long-range aircraft, missiles, and submarines that launch nuclear weapons; the nuclear weapons they carry; and the nuclear reactors that power the submarines.
• $25 billion would be allocated for the operation, sustainment, and modernization of tactical nuclear delivery systems -- the aircraft capable of delivering nuclear weapons over shorter ranges -- and the weapons they carry.
• $445 billion would be allocated for the complex of laboratories and production facilities that support nuclear weapons activities and the command, control, communications, and early-warning systems that enable the safe and secure operation of nuclear forces.