03 Jan U.S. Developing New, “Usable” Nuclear Weapons under the guise of “Life Extension”

The B61-12 “life extension program” is nothing of the sort.  The B61-12 is a completely new nuclear weapon.

It has a lower, variable yield (50,000 tons of TNT equivalent down to 300 tons), adjustable electronically through a new “dial-a-yield” system.  For comparison, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima was 15,000 tons and the largest U.S. nuclear weapon, the B83, has a maximum yield of 1,200,000 tons.

The B61-12 is also four times more accurate, with a circular error probabilities (CEP) of 30 meters compared with existing bombs CEP of 110-170 meters.  The new tail kit assembly, developed by Boeing for $1.8 billion, makes this a very expensive a smart bomb.

This combination – low variable yield and accuracy makes the B61-12 bomb the most dangerous nuclear weapon in America’s arsenal because it is considered usable!  The B61-12 is America’s first guided nuclear bomb, As Hans Kristensen of Federation of American Scientists notes, “We do not have a nuclear-guided bomb in our arsenal today…. It is a new weapon.”

“In practical terms, all this means that the more accurate the bomb, the lower the yield that is needed to destroy any specific target. A lower-yield and more accurate bomb can therefore be used without having to fear the mass, indiscriminate killing of civilians through explosive force or radioactive fallout.

This makes using nuclear weapons thinkable for the first time since the 1940s. The B61-12 only encourages this trend further.”  — Zachary Keck,  managing editor of The National Interest.

Many are concerned about the price tag.  Originally estimated to cost $4 billion, the cost has skyrocketed to over $11 billion and escalates every year for 400 B61-12 bombs.

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and United States Air Force completed the third and final development flight test of the B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb at Tonopah Test Range in Nevada on October 20, 2015.   Production engineering is to begin in 2016, with continued development into 2018 and full production is to begin in 2020.

When produced, the B61-12 will replace the existing B61-3, -4, -7, and -10 bombs, 180 of which are deployed in Germany, Turkey, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy.  At Germany’s Buchel air force base, the Pentagon plans to replace 20 old B61s with the B61-12 and retrofit the German Tornado fighter-bomber aircraft to carry and drop this new bomb.  According to Maria Zakharova, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, NATO’s policy of sharing nuclear weapons with non-nuclear members violates the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Phil Hoover, an engineer at Sandia National Laboratories, shows off a flight test body for a B61-12 nuclear weapon. Sandia engineers have spent the past few years designing, building and testing the top-secret electronic and mechanical innards of the bomb.  Credit: Jerry Redfern for Reveal

At just 11.8 feet long, 13 inches in diameter and about 700 pounds, the B61-12 is small enough to fit in the back of an SUV.

The B61-12 is not the only new nuclear weapon being developed in the U.S.  Four different W series warheads will be redesigned to have greater flexibility.

US plans to maintain and modernize nuclear weapons will cost $355 billion between 2014 and 2023. It suggests annual costs will likely grow after 2023 production begins on replacement systems. The Center for Public Integrity reports additional related spending will drive total costs to around $570 billion over the next decade, a figure that could approach $1 trillion over the next 30 years.

Flight integration for the B61-12 is now underway on the F-16, F-15E and Tornado (PA-200) with the B-2A and F-35A to follow