World-Ending Maneuvers? - TomDispatch.com

World-Ending Maneuvers? - TomDispatch.com World-Ending Maneuvers? Inside the Nuclear-Weapons Lobby Today By William D. Hartung and Hekmat Aboukhater The Pentagon is in the midst of a massive $2 trillion multiyear plan to build a new generation of nuclear-armed missiles, bombers, and submarines. A large chunk of that funding will go to major nuclear weapons contractors like Bechtel, General Dynamics, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman. And they will do everything in their power to keep that money flowing. This January, a review of the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program under the Nunn-McCurdy Act -- a congressional provision designed to rein in cost overruns of Pentagon weapons programs -- found that the missile, the crown jewel of the nuclear overhaul plan involving 450 missile-holding silos spread across five states, is already 81% over its original budget. It is now estimated that it will cost a total of nearly $141 billion to develop and purchase, a figure only likely to rise in the future.