President Joe Biden‘s administration has proposed the creation of a new nuclear bomb amid efforts to replace the aging U.S. nuclear arsenal.
What Happened: The Department of Defense (DoD) announced on Friday its plans to develop a new variant of the B61 gravity bomb, a weapon first produced amid the Cold War tensions in the 1960s.
Before this recent initiative, U.S. nuclear weapons production had largely remained stagnant since the Cold War’s end in 1991.
The B61 series, a crucial component of the current U.S. stockpile, are “tactical” gravity bombs designed to hit targets after being dropped from an airplane. The DoD stated in a press release that the new variant, named B61-13, is necessary “to assure our ability to achieve deterrence and other objectives.”
The B61-13 is expected to strengthen deterrence of adversaries and assurance of allies by providing the President with more options against certain larger and harder military targets, according to the DoD. It will also include modern safety, security, and accuracy features of the B61-12, an Obama-era variant.
The B61-13’s explosive yield will be “similar to” the B61-7 variant, a bomb with a maximum yield of 360 kilotons, according to the Federation of American Scientists. This yield would mean the B61-13 would have over 22 times the explosive force of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II.
Why It Matters: During his 2020 presidential campaign, Biden promised to “work to bring us closer to a world without nuclear weapons.” Despite this, the Biden administration has announced plans to retire the high-yield B83, whilst production on the first new nuclear weapons, including freshly produced warheads, has begun under his administration.
A massive ten-year, $750 billion effort to replace the nuclear arsenal is underway, described as “the country’s most ambitious nuclear weapons effort since the Manhattan Project.” Biden’s pursuit of nuclear weapons continues a trend set by several of his predecessors.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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