By Brett Rowland (The Heart Sq.)
The Pentagon needs to construct a much bigger nuclear gravity bomb to offer the army with “more flexibility” within the nation’s nuclear stockpile.
The U.S. Division of Protection has introduced plans to pursue a contemporary variant of the B61 nuclear gravity bomb, designated the B61-13. The transfer would require Congressional authorization and appropriation.
The Division of Power’s Nationwide Nuclear Safety Administration would produce the B61-13. The choice to pursue the brand new variant of the bomb was based mostly on the 2022 Nuclear Posture Overview.
Assistant Secretary of Protection for House Coverage John Plumb mentioned the announcement was “reflective of a changing security environment and growing threats from potential adversaries.”
“The United States has a responsibility to continue to assess and field the capabilities we need to credibly deter and, if necessary, respond to strategic attacks, and assure our allies,” he mentioned in a press release.
The projected price of the B61-13 was not launched.
Trendy U.S. plane would have the ability to ship the bomb. It will give the president “additional options against certain harder and large-area military targets,” in line with the U.S. Division of Protection.
The B61-13 would change among the B61-7s within the present nuclear stockpile and have a yield just like the B61-7, which is larger than that of the B61-12.
The B61-13 would have the identical most yield because the B61-7 (360 kilotons), a major enhance in contrast with the 50-kiloton B61-12, in line with analysts Hans Kristensen and Matt Korda wrote for the Federation of American Scientists.
“Although government officials insist that the B61-13 plan is not driven by new developments in adversarial countries or a new military targeting requirement, increasing the accuracy of a high-yield bomb obviously has targeting implications,” they wrote. “Detonating the weapon closer to the target will increase the probably that the target is destroyed, and a very hard facility could hypothetically be destroyed with one B61-13 instead of two B61-12s.”
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The brand new variant gained’t add to the nuclear stockpile.
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“The B61-13 represents a reasonable step to manage the challenges of a highly dynamic security environment,” Plumb mentioned. “While it provides us with additional flexibility, production of the B61-13 will not increase the overall number of weapons in our nuclear stockpile.”
U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., who’s chairman of the Home Armed Companies Committee, and U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the rating member of the Senate Armed Companies Committee, mentioned the variant of the B61 gravity bomb was “a modest step.”
“While we welcome the step of creating a variant of the B61, which will better allow the Air Force to reach hardened and deeply-buried targets, it is only a modest step in the right direction,” they wrote. The B61-13 shouldn’t be a long-term answer, however it’ll present our commanders … with extra flexibility in opposition to these goal units.”
“As the Strategic Posture Commission recently noted, China and Russia are in a full-on arms race, and the U.S. is running in place.” they continued. “Dramatic transformation of our deterrent posture – not incremental or piecemeal changes – is required to address this threat.”
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The 2022 Nuclear Posture Overview mentioned nuclear weapons are wanted.
“U.S. nuclear weapons deter aggression, assure allies and partners, and allow us to achieve Presidential objectives if deterrence fails. In a dynamic security environment, a safe, secure, and effective nuclear deterrent is foundational to broader U.S. defense strategy and the extended deterrence commitments we have made to allies and partners,” in line with the report.
“Security architectures in the Euro- Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions are a critical U.S. strategic advantage over those governments that challenge the rules-based international order,” it added.
Syndicated with permission from The Heart Sq..