Development of several non-nuclear components is holding up fielding of the warhead that will eventually ride on the Air Force’s new air-launched cruise missile, according to Jill Hruby, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Speaking with the Exchange Monitor following testimony before Senate lawmakers this week, Hruby said “we have a full list in rank order of things, but there’s only two or three that are really” causing delays to the W80-4 thermonuclear warhead. That warhead will eventually be deployed on the Air Force’s Long Range Standoff missile, or LRSO.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories are the design and engineering labs for the W80-4. Raytheon Missiles and Defense is building the LRSO under a $2 billion contract awarded in 2021. Work on the missile, which will replace the AGM-86B air-launched cruise missile, is expected to finish up in 2027. The B-52H will be the first aircraft to carry the missile.
The National Nuclear Security Administration on Monday announced that the W80-4 Life Extension program entered phase 6.4, or production engineering, in March. Following a successful preliminary design review, acceptance group review and system baseline design review, the warhead passed “through the system pre-production engineering gate,” the NNSA said in a statement.
Prior to entering phase 6.4, the NNSA was supposed to complete a bottom-up cost analysis, called a Baseline Cost Report, which an agency spokesperson said was completed but “is not yet releasable.” First production unit of the W80-4 is scheduled for September 2027, when it should enter service aboard the Air Force’s Long-Range Stand-Off (LRSO) cruise missile.
“Reaching the Phase 6.4 milestone is an important accomplishment for the W80-4 warhead program and the outstanding workforce that executes it,” said NNSA Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs, Dr. Marvin Adams. “The program remains synchronized with DOD as we partner with them to achieve needed modernization of the bomber leg of the nation’s nuclear deterrent.”
To mark the 70th anniversary of the alliance between the U.S. and South Korea, President Joe Biden and Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol last week announced a renewed commitment to, among other things, deterring North Korea from deploying nuclear weapons in the region.
The so-called Washington Declaration includes plans for U.S. nuclear ballistic-missile submarines to resume docking in South Korea for the first time in four decades. Writing for The Hill, former national security advisor and noted war hawk John Bolton said the deal fell short of what was necessary to keep the North Korean Kim regime in check.
“Reflecting a growing fear that America’s nuclear ‘extended deterrence’ is no longer reliable, either against the North or, importantly, China, South Korean public opinion has increasingly supported an independent nuclear program,” Bolton wrote. “Biden’s response to Beijing’s and Pyongyang’s growing nuclear and ballistic-missile threats, embodied in the Declaration, will do little to alleviate these ROK concerns.”
Consolidated Nuclear Security, the managing contractor at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., awarded five $1,000 grants to schools in East Tennessee to promote science, technology, engineering and math education.
The grants went to Rhea County High School, for its composting and recycling education program; Norwood Elementary (Knox County), for a STEM success in the classroom program; Robertsville Middle School (Oak Ridge), for an aviation program; Lake City Elementary (Anderson County), for a STEM lab for pre-kindergarten through second grade; and Roane County High School, for civil and environmental engineering through landscaping.
