The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) still expects to be late starting delivery of refurbished nuclear gravity bombs and ballistic missile warheads to the Air Force and Navy, but the current crop of bombs and warheads are enough “to get the job done” for a little while longer, the No. 2 at U.S. Strategic Command said Wednesday.
NNSA disclosed in May that problems with commercial-off-the-shelf capacitors would probably delay the date the semi autonomous Department of Energy agency can finish its first refurbished B61-12 gravity bomb and W88 Alt 370 sub-launched, ballistic missile warhead.
The NNSA has not said how much longer it will need to complete the first war-ready versions of those weapons. The B61-12 first production unit was due in 2020, the first W88 Alt 370 in 2019.
Vice Adm. David Kriete declined to say whether NNSA has told Strategic Command when the civilian agency now expects to produce the first updated B61-12 and W88 Alt-370.
“The NNSA is top rate,” Kriete said. “They’re working really hard. They’re making progress and we’re in constant communications.”
In its B61-12 life-extension program, the NNSA aims to homogenize four existing versions of the B61 gravity bomb and extend the weapon’s life for 20 years. NNSA expected to spend about $8 billion on the program before the delay. The Air Force, meanwhile, expects to spend about $4 billion to produce the guided tail kit that will help the bomb maneuver.
W88 Alt 370 aims to replace electric detonation hardware used in the newer of the Navy’s two submarine-launched ballistic missile warheads, and replace the conventional high-explosives used to spark the warhead’s fissile core. That was expected to cost about $4 billion over roughly 10 years, including up to $3 billion in NNSA expenses, according to DoE and Pentagon documents.
The NNSA plans to build some 480 B61-12 bombs and has some 350 W88 warheads, the nonprofit Federation of American Scientists estimated this year.