Why the USAF’s Sentinel ICBM faces multiple challenges
A rendering of the LGM-35A Sentinel missile. (Photo: US DoD)
The US Air Force (USAF) is facing more obstacles over the next few years to its plan to modernise the ground-based leg of the nuclear triad even after the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) programme survived the DoD’s Nunn-McCurdy Review.
Planned to replace the Minuteman III ICBM (MMIII), the size and scope of the Sentinel initiative as well as the financial resources it requires may well hamper the USAF’s ability to progress with it.
Speaking in a webinar conducted by US-based think tank Brookings Institution, the Undersecretary of the Air Force, Melissa Dalton claimed that the modernisation of the ICBM capability
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