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B61-13 air-dropped munitions are anticipated to be in full manufacturing later this yr
The US is planning to launch the primary manufacturing of its latest thermonuclear gravity bomb variant subsequent month, in line with the nation’s nuclear safety company.
The B61-13 will likely be a modification utilizing B61 warheads, which hit full manufacturing in 1968, modernized with newer electronics and management options like a tail package, successfully turning it right into a guided munition. The warhead’s most yield is round 360 kilotons, 24 instances that of the bomb dropped by the US on Hiroshima, in line with Fox Information.
“The NNSA anticipates reaching the primary manufacturing unit for the B61 Mod 13 later this month, nearly a full yr forward of schedule,” Nationwide Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA) appearing head Teresa Robbins instructed Congress on Wednesday.
Full scale manufacturing is anticipated later within the 2025 monetary yr, she mentioned.
The bomb “strengthens deterrence and assurance by offering the President with further choices in opposition to sure tougher and large-area army targets,” she added.
In January, Washington started deploying the sooner variant of the bomb – the B61-12 – at US bases in Europe.
Earlier this yr, US President Donald Trump named nuclear weapons as the best existential risk to mankind. In March, the US president known as for nuclear powers to desert their nuclear weapons.
“It could be nice if we may all denuclearize, as a result of the ability of nuclear weapons is loopy,” he instructed reporters. “I might very very like to begin these talks.”
Throughout his first presidential time period, Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the landmark 1987 Intermediate-Vary Nuclear Forces Treaty, citing Russian non-compliance. Moscow has condemned the withdrawal and denied the accusations.
In 2024, after Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden allowed Ukraine to make use of US missiles in long-range cross-border strikes on Russia, Moscow revised its nuclear doctrine, and lowered its acceptable threshold for using nuclear weapons. Beneath the brand new doctrine, any assault on Russia by a non-nuclear-armed state backed by a nuclear one will likely be handled as a direct assault by each, permitting Moscow to retaliate with nukes.
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