The Senate on Thursday approved a fiscal 2019 Pentagon spending bill that provided a small boost for development of a next-generation nuclear-tipped, air-launched cruise missile, and met the White House’s funding request for development of the next nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile.
While the Senate approved less funding for both efforts than did the House, the big-ticket weapons development programs have been on stable footing all throughout budget negotiations this summer and have sailed through subcommittee, committee, and now floor votes without any serious threat of reduced funding.
The funding was part of a so-called minibus appropriations bill that also provided appropriations for other federal agencies. The Senate’s bill has about $675 million for defense programs alone.
The next-generation cruise missile, the Long-Range Standoff Weapon (LRSO), would get about $625 million if the Senate’s bill becomes law. That is about $10 million more than the White House requested, but some $75 million less than what House approved in its version of the Pentagon’s annual budget measure.
For the next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile, known as the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent, the Senate met the White House’s request of roughly $345 million. The House recommended almost $415 million, or about $70 million more than the White House sought.
The two chambers will not be able to settle their differences over proposed funding for the Pentagon’s big nuclear-missile programs until the House returns from its August recess after Labor Day. Fiscal 2019 begins on Oct. 1.
Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are maturing designs for the new air-launched LRSO cruise missile under four-and-a-half-year contracts awarded in 2017 and worth about $900 million each. The B-21 Raider bomber Northrop Grumman is developing could carry the LRSO, which would be tipped with W80 nuclear warheads provided by the Department of Energy.
Boeing and Northrop Grumman are working on competing designs for new intercontinental ballistic missile systems under GBSD. The three-year contracts are worth about $350 million and $330 million, respectively. The new ICBM will replace legacy Minuteman III missiles, which are mostly armed with W78 nuclear warheads.
The Air Force plans to deploy GBSD and LRSO beginning in the late 2020s.
