In 2023, the administration of Joe Biden announced the creation of a new nuclear pump consisting of a variation of the B61 developed in the 60s, during the Cold war. Then the pentagon said that the new gravity bomb B61-13 It would allow ‘strengthening the dissuasion of the adversaries and the safety of the allies’, providing Biden ‘additional options against certain more difficult and large area military objectives’. A year and a half has not passed since then and The pump is already ready and has entered the production phase, seven months earlier than expected.
As reported Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), the B61-13 is a New bomb of Free fall –Without own propulsion – with variable performance that has reached this stage thanks to innovative planning that has allowed to reduce in more than one 25 % The estimated time until the production of the first unit. SNL is responsible for the design and engineering of the non-nuclear components of the B61-13, while the National Nuclear Safety Administration (Nsa) the factory.
24 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb
According to the specialized media New Atlas, the development of the B61-13 has cost 92 million dollars. This is a variant of the B61-7, with improvements in security systems and A guided system in the tail that allows you to go to the target after the launch.
Its variable performance capacity means that explosive power can be adjusted Between 10 and 360 kilotonswhich provides greater operational flexibility with lower collateral damage. In comparison, its predecessor, the B61-12in service since 2021, it reaches a maximum of 50 kilotons.
The only two nuclear bombs that have been used in a conflict, in Japan, had between 12 and 18 kilotons –fat man in Nagasaki– and between 18 and 23 – little boy in Hiroshima. According to Newsweek, the B61-13 could even be 24 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb and, to throw itself on Moscow, the fireball of the explosion it would vaporize everything in an area of 2 km² and kill every living being in 8 km². According to a simulation made by the medium in Nukemap, it would annihilate to more than 300,000 people.
The B61 series is The most veteran nuclear weapon in the American Arsenal. He has been in service for more than 50 years, since 1968, and has known several reviews to extend its useful life, whose last example is the B61-13.
The new nuclear bomb in the United States It will replace both the B61-12 and the B61-7reinforcing its deterrent capacity without increasing the total number of eyelets. They can be released from the bomber B-2 Spirit And, later, also from the B-21 Raider.
Nuclear powers, increasingly armed
In the last decades and after the end of the Cold War, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the subsequent agreements of nuclear non -proliferation, The world’s nuclear arsenal was reduced considerably. However, This trend has changed in recent years. The total number of eyelets has continued to descend slightly, mainly due to the dismantling of old weapons, but The number of operational weapons and military spending have increased in the last decade.
Currently, USA and Russia They keep More than 5,000 nuclear eyebrows eachwhile China It has significantly increased its nuclear deterrence and is around 600. The rest of countries with nuclear capacity – the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea – have smaller arsenals ranging from 290 in France to 50 North Korea.