US to Build First Nuclear Warhead in 40 Years

By Michael Katz    |   Friday, 19 April 2024 |  NEWSMAX

Two top Biden administration officials told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that the U.S. will be building its first nuclear warhead in 40 years and will do so without any nuclear testing.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Jill Hruby, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Agency, revealed the W93 warhead will be used on submarine-launched ballistic missiles, the Washington Times reported Thursday. It will be built with $19.8 billion requested by the NNSA for weapons in the 2025 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

The W93 has been in an early phase of design at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico since May 2022 and is on track for production beginning in the mid-2030s, Granholm and Hruby told the committee.

"The W93 is a new warhead program based on existing designs that will not require new underground nuclear explosive testing," Granholm and Hruby said in a joint written statement.

The Navy’s ballistic missile submarine force is currently equipped with two warhead types: the W76 and W88, the NNSA said on its website. The W93 will reduce over-reliance on the W76 system and allow the U.S. to keep pace with future adversary threats.

The Pentagon also is modernizing five warhead types — the B61-12, the B61-13, the W88, W87, and W80 warheads under a funding request of $2.84 billion, Granholm and Hruby wrote. The B61 is a nuclear gravity bomb dropped by aircraft, and the newer variant will be built by 2025.

The Biden administration did not request funds for the new submarine-launched nuclear cruise missile known as SLCM-N in the current budget, the officials stated, blaming the timing of last year’s defense authorization enactment, the Times reported. The SLCM-N likely will be armed with the W80 warhead, Hruby said. The W80 will also be used on the Air Force’s new air-launched, long-range missile.

The number used for the warhead — W93 — comes after the W89 and W92 were canceled following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Times reported.

The U.S. is adhering to a nuclear testing moratorium despite the Senate having rejected the proposed Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1999.

"The W93 will meet Defense Department requirements to enhance operational effectiveness of the U.S. ballistic missile submarine force," Granholm and Hruby wrote.