The Air Force’s premier nuclear weapons program, the next-generation Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile, is running the risk of becoming the next poster child for Pentagon procurement run amok.

When the Air Force first drew up plans for a modern replacement for its aging arsenal of more than 450 Cold War-era Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles, it pegged the price at just over $62 billion. (For context, that’s roughly the same amount the Biden administration wants to give Ukraine this year in military and economic assistance.)