Military procurement

New Nuclear-Armed Subs Win Pentagon Approval Before Obama Leaves

A draft of Kendall’s memo obtained by Bloomberg News includes the Navy’s latest cost estimate for the submarine: $13 billion in research and development and $112.7 billion in procurement.

Approval for the submarine program to enter full development -- known as “Milestone B” -- is significant “in terms of the importance that the Navy has attached” to it, the program’s “tight development schedule” and concerns over its impact on other defense priorities, Ronald O’Rourke, a naval analyst with the Congressional Research Service, said in an e-mail.

For the next decade, the military is budgeting $193 billion to modernize nuclear delivery systems, including $43.7 billion for the submarine program, up $9.4 billion from the estimate last year, according to a congressionally-mandated report to lawmakers late last year.