Top-lines from the NNSA Budget request released today. The request for Weapons Activities - where most #nuclear weapons $$ is - is up $1B to $16.5B from last year's request, or 6%, & up $500M or 3% from the amount Congress actually appropriated. #FY23Budget
Notably, we can't compare it to what the NNSA projected last year they would request this year. They are officially required to include such projections in the budget request BUT last year they didn't do it. (Don't know if they will include it this year, bet they won't.)
That is important because, for several years running, the NNSA budget for Weapons Activities grew by more than it was expected to grow. Then in FY21 it jumped MASSIVELY when Trump intervened personally to give NNSA extra billions after he was lobbied by nuclear hawks in Congress.
That increase, $3.1 B for weapons activities, was a 25% increase. Shocking. Biden's first budget increased that top-line by less than 1%. So this year's budget is a significantly sharper rise than last year's, even though last year's budget funded every weapon in Trumps request.
If you combine that increase with the expectation that the forthcoming Nuclear Posture Review will cancel the proposed new sea-launched cruise missile and retire the B83, yet the budget is still going up, it means other programs are increasing in cost.
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