The oldest atomic bomb in the U.S. arsenal desperately needs to be upgraded before its aging electronics go bad early in the next decade, the head of the Offutt-based U.S. Strategic Command says/.../
The plan pitched by the National Nuclear Security Administration, which manages the country's nuclear stockpile, would do more than just replace obsolete parts of the B61.
It also would add certain security features that backers say would make the bomb safer even if it fell into the wrong hands, although critics contend those features are unnecessary. And it would retrofit the bomb so it could be used with the new F-35 fighter jet.
Significantly, it would add a guided tail kit that would turn the B61 from a gravity-dependent “dumb” bomb into a “smart” one that could be aimed more precisely at a target.
“The big plus to the (B61-)12 is the additional precision guidance,” said Barry Watts, a retired Air Force officer who is now a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. “The anti-nuclear groups look at it as a new capability, a new warhead.”
Arms-control advocates have argued the B61-12 upgrade violates Obama's 2010 nuclear strategy, which pledged not to add military capabilities when upgrading nuclear weapons.
The trouble with that strategy, Watts said, is that the U.S. arsenal is full of larger weapons designed for a massive Cold War confrontation with the Soviets. Now, though, the Russians and other nations in the nuclear club are focusing on smaller, tactical weapons designed to take out armies instead of cities.
Watts believes the U.S. emphasis on reducing weapons is misguided.
“If everybody on Earth were following (Obama's) lead, that would be fine,” Watts said. “But most countries are walking in the opposite direction.”