All of this research, development, upkeep and maintenance for nuclear weapons falls under the DOE budget not DoD. This is part of the shell game to cover up the real cost.
The media should be crucified when they defend the defense spending and hold up that damn chart that indicates $600 billion DoD budget or 21% of our budget is what we spend on military. Liars!
It's a big rich peoples job program and financial boon dongle the DoE has going here.
Much like the military most common tasks they simply don't do anymore. Transportation, delivery facilities, feed themselves, wash their own clothes. No we hire contractors at 300% of the cost to do these remedial tasks.
Congress and the media complain about entitlements SS and Medicare. They simply want us to accept substantially less in return compared to what we continue to put in. They never mention getting rid of the SS collection 6.2% paid by you, and 6.2% paid by your employers every pay check. Why? Because this money goes into the general discretionary fund, it's used to buy more military weapons and fight more wars.
That employee to contractor ratio is way out of proportion. Just like FEMA, the DoE is just a cover department for more military and weaponization. Everything is a lie.