Earlier this week, the National Nuclear Security Administration, which operates under the U.S. Department of Energy, announced that it has completed in record time the manufacturing of the first B61-13 gravity nuclear bomb to equip the U.S. Armed Forces. The news was confirmed at the Pantex Plant by Chris Wright, who currently serves as the U.S. Secretary of Energy, stating that the assembly of the first bomb was completed less than two years after the program was publicly announced and nearly a year ahead of the originally scheduled date.
Quoting some of Secretary Wright’s statements: “The remarkable production speed of the B61-13 demonstrates the ingenuity of our scientists and engineers and the urgency we face to strengthen deterrence in a new volatile era. I had the honor today of sealing the first finished unit at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, where all the efforts from the NNSA’s labs, plants, and sites culminated in this astonishing milestone. This achievement demonstrates American strength both to our adversaries and our allies.”
Expanding on some details of the new weapon, the official NNSA release notes that the new B61-13 bomb makes use of the production framework of its predecessor (the B61-12), whose final unit was completed five months ago; it also features the same reliability and precision characteristics. What this new version adds is a yield specifically designed for the destruction of large-area “hard military targets,” providing a highly capable replacement for the older B61 bombs.
Precisely, the use of already existing capabilities and procedures was what allowed the acceleration of the project, as noted by Acting Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs David Hoagland: “Accelerating the production of the B61-13 while maintaining the highest safety standards and without disrupting our other six modernization programs is a remarkable achievement. Balancing programmatic risk with the urgency of the deterrence mission demonstrated great creativity and foresight by our program managers and engineers. I’m confident many of these practices can be applied to future weapons modernization initiatives, with promising implications for their delivery timelines.”
It’s also worth noting that the new U.S. B61-13 bombs will be certified only for deployment from strategic bombers (such as the B-1, B-2, and B-52) that launch from the U.S. mainland. This marks an important difference compared to other models in the B61 family, which can be launched from a much broader range of U.S. Air Force platforms, including F-15 and F-16 fighters, as well as the stealth F-22 and F-35 models.
*Image credits: NNSA
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