The Pentagon has awarded an 18-year-long contract worth $12 billion to the UK-based defense company BAE Systems. The agreement sees BAE "supporting and augmenting" Washington's Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) weapon systems, as well as providing "professional services" related to their operations. It expires in December 2040.

The US Department of Defense did not elaborate further on the nature of the BAE Systems' work on the ICBMs, which can deliver nuclear warheads. However, the Pentagon noted that most of the results would be carried out at the US Air Force Nuclear Weapon Center in Hill Air Force Base, Utah.

This is one of the biggest contracts allocated by the Pentagon this year amid a slashed defense budget. At the same time, the Biden administration called for increasing investments in the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent, namely ICBMs, and the overall nuclear weapons budget contracted by $813 billion for 2023.

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