The U.S. Department of Defense reported its plan to build a new nuclear bomb, which would be approximately 24 times more powerful than the one that destroyed Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945. Approval is still needed from the U.S. Congress, the body responsible for authorizing funding.
The Pentagon has dubbed it the B61-13. It would replace some B61-7 bombs, built in the 1980s, in the current U.S. nuclear arsenal, according to a statement released last Friday. They call it a “gravity bomb” because it is pulled to the ground by the force of gravity rather than flying to the target with a propelled missile. A bomber flies over the target and drops the device.
“The B61-13 represents a reasonable step toward managing the challenges of a highly dynamic security environment,” John Plumb, undersecretary of defense for space policy, said in the statement. “THE U.S. The U.S. 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 for our allies.”
The new warhead would have a yield of 360 kilotons. By comparison, the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II had only 15 and 25 kilotons. The Pentagon assured that it has been evaluating this initiative for several months. It clarified, however, that “it is not a response to any specific current event”.
The B61-13 will be the new main armament for the bombers and will complement the deployment of the B61-12, according to the Defense Department’s proposal. The B61-12s are much less powerful at 50 kilotons. And they are already deployed at NATO bases in Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey.
Organizations on alert for the danger of a new nuclear bomb
If approved, it would be one of the most ambitious nuclear modernizations since World War II. The executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), Melissa Park, has already raised the alert. “At this time of heightened tension and conflict around the world, it has never been more urgent and important to take action to eliminate nuclear weapons,” she said in another statement.
Park stressed that this is an irresponsible proposal. “Announcing these plans in the midst of conflicts in Europe and the Middle East involving nuclear-armed countries – Russia and Israel – is an arrogant act,” it said in the text of the organization, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017.
The Federation of American Scientists said the announcement of a new nuclear weapon is “quite bizarre.” The B61-12 began full-scale production only last year, with the stated goal of providing greater safety and increased accuracy compared to older gravity bombs. It is the same argument used to request funding for this new nuclear bomb.
The Pentagon said it still plans to continue making B61-12s, but will trade some of them for B61-13s, without increasing the size of the declared nuclear arsenal. In its statement, it said the B61-13 will “provide them with additional flexibility” by “providing the President with additional options” against certain “harder, large-area” military targets.
The nuclear powers are also upgrading their weaponry.
In addition to the U.S., other nuclear powers are modernizing their weaponry. The Pentagon released a report this year claiming that China had added hundreds of nuclear weapons to its arsenal in recent years. The claim has been backed up by outside observers.
Russia, for its part, has withdrawn from several nuclear treaties. This month, for example, the lower house of the Russian Parliament voted unanimously to withdraw from the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), a treaty dating back to the 1990s. It came a few days after President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia had successfully tested a new nuclear weapon.
Apart from the proposed new nuclear gravity bomb, the U.S. Air Force also already successfully tested a new type of nuclear missile in 2022, according to new reports published earlier this month.
The Federation of American Scientists says the Pentagon’s new idea is more of a “political bomb.” “The military does not need an additional, more powerful gravity bomb,” they say in their statement on the project. The decision to build the B61-13 appears to have to do with the need to get rid of another megaton weapon in the U.S. arsenal: the B83-1.
This weapon was originally scheduled for retirement under President Barack Obama’s administration. However, it was resurrected by the Donald Trump administration. What is the problem they want to curb? According to the organization, keeping the B83-1 in production would cost a lot of money, which could be better used on other projects.