The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the Air Force in August completed three more flight tests of the B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb — a weapon whose first production date will be delayed because one of its non-nuclear components was not durable enough to last 30 years in the field.
The latest three tests took place Aug. 21 at the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada, the agency announced Tuesday in a press release. B61-12 will homogenize four existing variants of the oldest deployed U.S. nuclear weapon. The “final weapon system demonstration test from F-16 aircraft” is due next year, the NNSA release says.
The agency announced the August test flights fewer than 24 hours before Charles Verdon, head of weapons programs at NNSA headquarters in Washington, was set to testify in the House about an expected 1.5-year delay, to 2021 or 2022, for the B61-12 first production unit.
Verdon will be joined by senior Air Force and Navy officers at the hearing, which will also touch on delays, to 2020 or 2021, for the first production unit of the W88-Alt 370 submarine-launched ballistic-missile warhead. Both weapons were to use off-the-shelf capacitors that NNSA has deemed unfit for long service.
The Air Force is responsible for integrating the NNSA-made B61-12 with carrier aircraft including versions of the U.S. B-2 bomber, the planned B-21 bomber, the F-15, F-16, F-35, and the German-made PA-200, according to the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center. The bomb is deployed in Europe in the territory of NATO allies.
Including Air Force and NNSA work, the B61-12 will cost between roughly $11.5 billion and $13 billion over about 20 years, according to documents from the Energy and Defense departments. The NNSA’s share of the bomb’s cost is about $8 billion, the agency estimates, though the announced delay to the program could push that figure up.
The Washington-based nonprofit Federation of American Scientists estimates the NNSA will build 480 B61-12 bombs.
