By Tony Capaccio / September 10, 2025 09:47AM ET / Bloomberg Government
Air Force officials have told congressional auditors it’s feasible to extend, until 2050, Boeing Co.’s aging Minuteman III nuclear missiles that have been the ground-based leg of the US-nuclear triad arsenal for more than half a century.
The extension would add 11 years to the planned lifetime of the missiles, which have been on alert since the 1970s.
If delays lengthen and costs increase on the new Northrop Grumman Corp. Sentinel ICBM, Air Force officials said, then a fallback plan to extend the Boeing missiles could be executed — but with increasing parts, supply chain and personnel challenges, according to a declassified Government Accountability Office assessment released Wednesday.
“Sentinel delays mean the Air Force must operate the aging Minuteman III longer than planned — potentially significantly longer,” said the GAO. So “the Air Force is evaluating options to continue operating Minuteman III through 2050,” it said.
Bloomberg first reported on the potential extension to 2050 in March, based on an internal Air Force program document.
Air Force officials told GAO that “although they are confident Minuteman III can be used beyond 2030 — even out to 2050 — they acknowledged there are unknowns such as ground electrical subsystems and electronics — for example, diodes, resistors, and capacitors — which could degrade to unacceptable levels.”
The fresh disclosure could give ammunition to arms control lawmakers and Sentinel skeptics such as Democrats Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Ed Markey, Senator Jeff Merkley and Representative John Garamendi to argue that the Sentinel to be terminated or curtailed in favor of the Minuteman extension.
The Sentinel was projected last year to be deployed starting in May 2029. The first test flight was once projected for December 2023, but the GAO in a June report said that’s been delayed to at least March 2028.
There won’t be a deployment schedule until a program restructure is complete in 2026 as the service and Pentagon acquisition officials continue to review the implications of a projected 81% increase disclosed last year in the Sentinel program’s overall cost — to at least $141 billion.
The Pentagon also concluded that per-missile costs may increase to as much as $214 million when calculated in 2020 dollars, up from $118 million.
The Minuteman III program office “told us the missile itself is performing well” and “they have enough available to sustain the required ICBMs on alert to 2050, but there are sustainment risks,” the GAO said, adding that some classified details were omitted.
The current plan is to remove all 400 Minuteman III ICBMs from silos by 2039. But the Air Force and Northrop Grumman must manage the elaborate process to take out the older missiles, refurbish the silos and then install Sentinels — a nuclear missile minuet that must be accomplished without letting down the nation’s nuclear guard.
Air Force officials also disclosed this year that new silos will be built — the exact number of which is under review — and refurbished ones will also be used.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tony Capaccio in Washington at acapaccio@bloomberg.net
