The Sandia National Laboratories split its Nuclear Deterrence division into two new organizations and brought in a former Raytheon executive to oversee them, the Albuquerque, N.M.-based labs network announced this week.
Sandia rolled out the changes internally in November, a labs spokesperson wrote in an email to Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor.
A major cog in the reshuffle clicked into place on Monday, when the former Raytheon hand, Laura McGill, officially became Sandia’s second deputy labs director. McGill is dual-hatted as chief technology officer for nuclear deterrence and was most recently deputy vice president of engineering at Raytheon Missiles & Defense. She retired from Raytheon after spending nearly 30 years in the defense industry.
Directly below McGill will be Steve Girrens and Rita Gonazales, respectively the associate lab directors for the Stockpile Management, Components and Production division, and the Modernization and Futures division. Girrens was the deputy director of the Nuclear Deterrence division that was split in half to form the new divisions after, according to Sandia’s release, it got too big.
“Moving forward, our new structure will re-balance the growing workload throughout the nuclear deterrence organizations by addressing roles, responsibilities and activities to ensure Sandia stays on track to meet our nuclear weapons deliverables,” Sandia Director James Peery said in the press release.
Modernization and Future Systems “has responsibility for inserting new technologies into future systems,” while Stockpile Management, Components and Production “is responsible for ensuring the reliability of the nation’s existing nuclear weapons stockpile, including component and production elements of the program,” the Sandia spokesperson told the Monitor.
Meanwhile, Dori Ellis will remain Sandia’s deputy director and chief operating officer. Sandia made her a deputy in 2019.
Last year, the Pentagon tabbed Raytheon to build the Long Range Standoff Weapons (LRSO) nuclear-tripped cruise missile, passing over a design by Lockheed Martin. LRSO will carry the refurbished W80-4 warhead and begin replacing the 1980s-vintage, Boeing-built AGM-86b Air Launched Cruise Missile around 2030 or so. The Boeing B-52H will be the first aircraft to carry LRSO.
The W80-4 is third in line among the four remaining nuclear weapons refurbishments the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has on its plate this decade. The W88 Alt-370 submarine-launched ballistic missile refurb and the B61-12 gravity bomb reboot will precede W80-4, which is tentatively slated for a 2025 first-production unit. The W87-1 land-based intercontinental ballistic missile life-extension will follow W80-4.
