The Department of Defense has declared its intention to develop a nuclear bomb with a potency 24 times greater than the ones employed during World War II in Japan. The Pentagon is requesting congressional authorization and financial support to develop a contemporary version of the B61 nuclear gravity bomb, to be named the B61-13, as stated in a DoD press release.
“Today’s announcement is reflective of a changing security environment and growing threats from potential adversaries,” Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John Plumb said in the release. “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.”
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Pentagon Unveils Potent B61-13 Nuclear Bomb
The fact sheet accompanying the release indicates that the B61-13’s yield will be comparable to the B61-7, which, as reported by Defense News, has a maximum yield of 360 kilotons. To put it into perspective, this yield is 24 times greater than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in World War II, which had a yield of around 15 kilotons. Additionally, the B61-13 would be approximately 14 times more powerful than the bomb used on Nagasaki, which had a yield of 25 kilotons.
According to the fact sheet, the powerful new bomb will also “will include the modern safety, security, and accuracy features of the B61-12.”
The announcement comes amid rising tensions around the globe, with the U.S. conducting a high-explosive experiment at a nuclear test site in Nevada earlier this month. Corey Hinderstein, the deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation at the National Nuclear Security Administration, said the test was meant to advance “our efforts to develop new technology in support of U.S. nuclear nonproliferation goals.”
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Implications for Global Security and Treaty Dynamics
“They will help reduce global nuclear threats by improving the detection of underground nuclear explosive tests,” Hinderstein said of the experiments.
The test came as Russia was largely expected to announce it was pulling out of the 1966 Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which was designed to ban nuclear explosions anywhere in the world. However, the treaty was never ratified by China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel, Iran and Egypt.
According to the statement, the new bomb will be deployable using contemporary aircraft and is intended to provide the President with the flexibility to target substantial and heavily fortified military objectives.
If authorized, the new bomb would serve as a replacement for certain B61-7 bombs currently within the U.S. nuclear arsenal, rather than contributing to an expansion of the U.S. nuclear inventory, as mentioned in the statement.
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