This fall, the Northrop Grumman American concern will receive the first tranche from the US military budget 85 billions of dollars, allocated to create a fundamentally new intercontinental ballistic missile (MBR).
New ICBM should replace obsolete Minuteman 3. This is a development of the late 1960s, and, despite a number of improvements, rockets have long been morally and technically outdated. As conceived by the US military, new ICBM should be mine-based, solid fuel engine, precision weapons and multiple warheads. Minimum range 15 thousands of kilometers. It is too early to judge the more precise parameters of the new rocket: American developers so far only offer its concept.
New project assigned GBSD designation (Ground based strategic deterrent - “A weapon of strategic deterrence for ground-based”). The Pentagon is counting, that a promising rocket will last 50 years.
US military planning, that new ICBMs will be on combat duty already by 2027 year, and by 2036 they will completely replace everything 450 old "Miniment-3". The place of their basing will not change. The arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles is now distributed across three US Air Force bases - Warren (Wyoming), Malstrom (Staten Montana) and minot (North Dakota).
Given the possibilities of American industry - this is a very realistic time. That's just the amount voiced by the US military department 85 billions of dollars, dedicated to development, far from the truth. It has already increased by twenty billion with 2016 of the year, when the Americans announced a tender to develop a new type of ICBM. In reality, such a project requires hundreds of billions of dollars, - I do not exclude, that US taxpayers new missiles will cost a trillion dollars.
I believe, that it will be a super-ruinous project even for the US economy. And generally speaking, specifications, declared at this stage, also do not stand up to criticism. Make a high-profile statement about the invulnerability of new US missiles. It's just fiction. All parameters and trajectories of intercontinental ballistic missiles have long been well known. And it’s easy to identify their vulnerabilities.
Author: Victor Murahovskyy
