WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. completed its first of a new type of nuclear gravity bomb almost a year ahead of schedule.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright made the announcement at the Pantex Plant in Texas. The first B61-13 gravity bomb, the latest modification to the B61 family of nuclear weapons, has a greater yield than its predecessor.
Development of the B61-13 will cost an estimated $92 million over the next four years, according to budget documents.
The first unit was assembled nearly a year before the initial target date, according to the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.
“Modernizing America’s nuclear stockpile is essential to delivering President Trump’s peace through strength agenda,” Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said. “The remarkable speed of the B61-13’s production is a testament to the ingenuity of our scientists and engineers and the urgency we face to fortify deterrence in a volatile new age.”
Part of the air leg of the U.S. nuclear triad, the B61 is the longest-serving and most versatile weapon in the U.S. nuclear stockpile. While a broad range of fighter and bomber aircraft can deliver the B61 family, the B61-13 will only be certified for delivery by strategic bomber aircraft and deployed from bases in the continental U.S.
The B61-13 is one of seven ongoing warhead modernization programs NNSA is working on to ensure the effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear stockpile.
The B61-13 features a yield “oriented to the defeat of certain harder and large-area military targets,” according to the National Nuclear Security Administration.
The B61-13 will replace some of the B61-7s in the nation’s existing nuclear stockpile. It won’t increase the overall number of weapons in the U.S. stockpile, according to a 2023 Department of Defense fact sheet. The number of B61-12s to be produced will be lowered by the same amount as the number of B61-13s produced.
