The development of a nuclear bomb that would be 24 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II is ‘significantly ahead of schedule,’ according to U.S. national security officials.
‘The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will complete the First Production Unit of the B61-13, a modern variant of the B61 nuclear gravity bomb, this fiscal year and significantly ahead of schedule,’ an NNSA spokesperson told Fox News.
‘One of seven warhead modernization programs to ensure the reliability and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, the B61-13 will provide additional options against certain harder and large-area military targets,’ the spokesperson added. ‘NNSA accelerated delivery of the weapon by leveraging manufacturing processes from the related B61-12 program, whose final unit was completed in 2024, and implementing a range of technical innovations to optimize production.’
The process for the newest version began in the Biden administration in 2023, and it is now going into full production seven months ahead of schedule. A Department of Defense fact sheet from 2023 said the B61-13 would ‘strengthen deterrence of adversaries,’ referring to the 2022 nuclear posture review that observed U.S. adversaries like China and Russia continue to expand their nuclear forces while ‘increasing reliance on nuclear weapons.’
The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was about a 15-kiloton bomb. The DoD fact sheet released in October 2023 said the ‘B61-13 will have a yield similar to the B61-7, which is higher than that of the B61- 12.’
Citing defense officials, the Federation of American Scientists said the B61-7 has a maximum yield of 360 kilotons, making it 24 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The B61-13, therefore, would also be 14 times more powerful than the 25-kiloton bomb dropped on Nagasaki.
Sandia National Laboratories, where the new bomb is being developed, said the B61-13 program ‘used innovative program planning that resulted in projected delivery seven months earlier than expected, a more than 25% decrease in overall time to first production unit.’ Their statement cited ‘a critical challenge and urgent need’ for the acceleration and said the B61-13 ‘team reprioritized qualification activities, planned tests with U.S. Air Force stakeholders and jointly completed requirements with Los Alamos National Laboratory and NNSA.’
‘Their creativity in system qualification put an aggressive set of plans in motion to meet stakeholder expectations,’ Sandia National Laboratories said.
The statement comes a day after President Donald Trump’s nominee for NNSA administration, former Rep. Brandon Williams, faced off with senators during his confirmation hearing.
Williams notably testified that he would not advise the resumption of nuclear detonation tests last conducted in the United States in 1992. He said the ultimate decision would be ‘above my paygrade’ but that he would not recommend tests and instead preferred to rely on ‘scientific information,’ such as computer modeling done at NNSA laboratories based on data gathered from nonnuclear detonation tests.
His response came during a line of questioning by Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., who cited how ‘millions of people and acres of land were contaminated by radiation’ during nuclear detonation testing conducted in her home state during the Cold War.