The US Department of Defense has announced the construction of a new high-power nuclear bomb to replace the old B61-7, the main thermonuclear weapons in the US post-Cold War arsenal. The US now has more than 3,700 nuclear warheads, a number that places it as the second nuclear power behind Russia with 5,997. Although the number of such bomb units has declined substantially since the Cold War, U.S. policymakers still believe in their deterrent capability, especially given the current context of geopolitical instability. “Today’s announcement reflects a changing security environment and growing threats from potential adversaries,” Under Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John Plumb said in a statement. “The United States has a responsibility to continue to assess and deploy the capabilities we need to credibly deter and, if necessary, respond to strategic attacks and provide security to our allies.”
What the new U.S. nuclear bomb looks like
The B61 inert nuclear bomb program got its start in the 1960s at the famed Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Since then, several versions of this model have been manufactured and have grown in power until reaching the 360 kilotons that B61-13 will have. This will make the new U.S. nuclear bomb 24 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and 14 times more powerful than the one that destroyed Nagasaki.
Hans Kristensen, a nuclear weapons expert with the Federation of American Scientists, who was briefed by the Pentagon on the bomb earlier this week, told Defense News that the weapon will incorporate the same warheads as the B61-7s of the 1980s and 1990s. While it will retain the casing style and tail kit of the B61-12, the last model of this type of bomb developed to date. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, the new bomb will include design features from the B61-12, such as improved safety and security systems and a tail-mounted guidance system for greater accuracy. Although it will be different in power and will more closely resemble the B61-7, with 360 kilotons, than the B61-12 with its 50 kilotons.
The U.S. military says the B61-13 will be launchable from modern aircraft, including the B-21 Raider, the world’s most advanced new stealth bomber being developed with Northrop Grumman and about to take off.
A weapon more for politics than war
The Pentagon assures that the creation of this bomb will not increase the size of its nuclear arsenal. Rather, they plan to reduce the number of B61-12s and produce B61-13s to replace them, keeping the total number between 400 and 500. These high-powered bombs in their arsenal will allow them to counter larger targets and give the President more options in mission planning.
However, making more high yield nuclear bombs, Kristensen says, is not due to the needs of modern warfare, which favors lower yield warheads, but rather their manufacture is due to the current political situation in the US. US President Joe Biden has begun to get rid of such bombs, but Republican lawmakers have objected, claiming that they are needed to attack hard-to-reach targets. “It’s unfortunate that we have to resort to nuclear weapons as a kind of nuclear bargaining chip in Congress,” Kristensen said. “It’s probably not a new phenomenon. But we understand that the administration has decided that this is what it needs to, in a sense, cajole the defense hawks.”