The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is still determining if problems with non-nuclear weapons components will prevent the B61-12 gravity bomb and W88 Alt 370 submarine-launched ballistic missile warhead from entering service with the Air Force and Navy on time, according to an annual agency report released Wednesday.
The details are included in the agency’s 2020 Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan: an annual document that is hundreds of pages long and provides Congress and the public with updates on the unclassified cost and schedule details of the NNSA’s weapons programs.
In the report, the NNSA said it needs to do “further testing” to determine whether a decision to not to use certain commercial-off-the-shelf capacitors in the B61-12 and W88 Alt 370 would delay the date by which the weapons could meet the military’s “Initial Operational Capability.”
When it disclosed in May that the capacitors did not meet military requirements, the NNSA said only that the setback would “probably” delay the dates by which the agency could produce the first war-ready B61-12 and W88 Alt 370. Now, the agency has given notice that the problem might take so long to fix that it forces the Air Force and Navy to rely on older weapons for a little while longer.
The B61-12’s first production unit was due in 2020, the first W88 Alt 370 in 2019.
The No. 2 officer at U.S. Strategic Command, which is in charge of the inter-service U.S. nuclear arsenal, told reporters Wednesday the existing gravity bombs and submarine-launched warheads could “get the job done,” in the event of a delay.
“The NNSA is top rate,” Navy Vice Adm. Dave Kriete said on the call. “They’re working really hard. They’re making progress and we’re in constant communications.”
The NNSA plans to build some 480 B61-12 bombs and has roughly 350 W88 warheads, the nongovernmental Federation of American Scientists estimates.
