The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Pantex Plant in Texas said Monday it assembled the “first production capability unit” of the W88 Alt-370 submarine-launched nuclear warhead, a precursor to the first production unit intended to prove the entire warhead design is ready for mass manufacturing.
The phrase “first production capability unit” officially debuted in February in the NNSA’s budget request for fiscal 2021. The agency’s latest Stockpile Steward and Management Plan, an annual declassified summary of ongoing nuclear-arsenal modernization operations, also did not include the term, nor did the NNSA’s 2020 budget request.
A spokesperson for Bechtel National-led plant operator Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) did not immediately reply to a request for comment about when Pantex completed the first production capability unit or what that unit involves.
The W88 is the larger of the Navy’s two submarine-launched ballistic missile warheads, both of which tip Trident II-D5 missiles carried by Ohio-class submarines. The 370 major alteration will replace the weapon’s arming, fusing and firing system, and the conventional high explosives that set off its nuclear explosive package. The upgrade will keep the weapon in service for decades more.
The W88 Alt-370’s true first production unit — a fully assembled, and potentially deployable, warhead that will be disassembled to verify the design is sound and ready for mass production — was delayed to fiscal 2021 from fiscal 2019 due to the need to replace capacitors intended for use in three major parts of the weapon.
Capacitors store electrical charges and can be used in detonators and neutron generators, among other things.
Consolidated Nuclear Security said in its press release that assembling the “first production capability unit” of the W88 Alt-370 allows the Amarillo, Texas, plant’s “staff to exercise processes to ensure readiness for rate production” of the weapon.
The NNSA and the Pentagon estimate the W88 Alt-370 will cost about $4 billion over roughly 10 years, including up to $3 billion in NNSA expenses. The NNSA has roughly 350 W88 warheads, the Washington-based Federation of American Scientists estimates.
