Sentinel ICBM (LGM-35A) — $140.9B Northrop Sole-Source
Modern Apex of the Single-Prime Capital-Concentration Pattern
Originally Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD), renamed LGM-35A Sentinel. Boeing withdrew from competition Sept 2020; Northrop Grumman awarded $13.3 billion Engineering and Manufacturing Development contract sole-source. Per July 2024 Nunn-McCurdy review by Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment William LaPlante: program acquisition cost ESCALATED to $140.9 billion — an 81% increase from the Milestone B baseline. Schedule slipped 'several years' past the projected 2029 IOC.
Per CRS Defense Primer + GAO June 2023 evaluation: program delayed by Northrop staffing shortfalls, security-clearance delays, IT infrastructure challenges, and supply chain disruptions. First Sentinel launch projected 2027. IOC early 2030s.
Engine framing: $140.9 billion sole-source flow to a single prime over the program lifecycle, locked in through the 2070s — the single largest concentration of single-prime ICBM capital in US history.
Also in The 1947-2026 Defense-Industrial Capital Architecture (Report #87, May 8 2026)
The 1947-2026 Defense-Industrial Capital ArchitectureContinuous Substrate Hub — 79 Years of Engineered The Last Supper — July 21 1993 Pentagon Consolidation DirectiveThe Single Most Important Structural Event Post-19Pentagon Economic Defense Unit + Deal Team Six (Q1 2026)Highest-Leverage Genesis-Era Finding — The BankersThe Crown Family — General Dynamics 8-Decade PersistencePersistence Index 0.87 (7/8 Decades) — Multi-GenerThe Bechtel Family — 8-Decade Defense Infrastructure DynastyPersistence Index 1.00 (8/8 Decades) — Highest-DecThe Carlyle Group — Frank Carlucci Defense-PE TemplateFirst-Generation Wall-Street-as-Defense-Prime OperInvention Secrecy Act of 1951 — The Classified Patent Substrate75-Year Continuous Classified-IP Pipeline (Net-NewPilgrims Society + RAND + IDA + MITRE — The Parastate LayerCross-Board Interlock Density 34.2% — Where Defens