The Pentagon decided to stop the Sentinel intercontinental missile project

The Pentagon has suspended the development and creation of infrastructure for a new intercontinental ballistic missile LGM-35 Sentinel ("Guardian"), writes Defense One. In the material, the translation of which publishes Pravda.Ru , the reasons for such a decision are reported.

Work on the command and launch stages of the U.S. Air Force's Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program has been suspended, while the service's management is developing a plan to restructure over-budget efforts to replace aging intercontinental ballistic missiles, service representatives said on Monday.

"The Air Force Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Systems Directorate is evaluating aspects of ongoing developments that may be suspended as the Air Force restructures the program and updates the procurement strategy," a service spokesman said in a statement. "Due to the changing requirements for launchers in the command and launch segment, the Air Force instructed Northrop Grumman Corporation to suspend design, testing and construction work."

The restructuring of the program was announced last July after the projected costs of Sentinel rose to $141 billion, which was 81 percent higher than initial estimates, and after Pentagon officials said there was no realistic alternative to continuing the program.

Northrop Grumman CEO Cathy Worden hinted at a work break on January 30.

"The government has said that, according to their forecasts, the restructuring will take 18 to 24 months, so we are still in that window," Warden said during the company's fourth—quarter earnings report.

According to her, Northrop is working with the government at the restructuring stage, and at the same time the company is "performing important tasks" under the contract for the design and development of production.

This work continues despite the fact that last year the Air Force officially canceled the approval of the Sentinel program for Phase B, which transferred the program from the stage of "technology improvement and risk reduction" to the stage of engineering and production development.

But the scope of Northrop's work in this area may change. Last year, representatives of the Air Force put forward the idea of saving money by abandoning some construction work and opening them up to competition.

"I think there are elements of the ground infrastructure where there may be opportunities for competition that we can add to the Sentinel acquisition strategy," said the then head of the Air Force procurement department, Andrew Hunter.

How the Trump administration will restructure the Sentinel program remains to be seen. In a recent speech, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth expressed support for these efforts, saying that it is extremely important to maintain and modernize all three components of the nuclear triad — Sentinel, the Columbia-class submarine and the B-21 bomber.