The US Department of Defense ( DoD ) has announced its design to grow a new high - yield atomic gravity turkey , pending Congressional authorisation and funding .
The DoD say on Friday that they seek to produce a New variant of the B61 atomic gravity bomb , to be term the B61 - 13 . The bomb will have a alike yield to the B61 - 7 , aCold War - erabomb that can give rise burst of up to360 kiloton . For setting , the bomb that America dropped onHiroshimaat the oddment of World War II had a16 - kiloton output , mean that it produced an explosion equivalent to 16,000 metric ton of TNT .
The new bomb will slowly phase outolderweapons in the US ’s aging nuclear backlog , and will be deliverable by modern aircraft , which the DoDsayswill provide the President with " extra options against certain harder and large - area military targets " .
" Today ’s announcement is reflective of a change security system environment and growing threats from potential adversaries , " Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John Plumb say in astatement . " The United States has a responsibility to continue to tax and field the capability we postulate to probably deter and , if necessary , answer to strategical flak , and check our friend . "
While the name " gravity bomb calorimeter " conjures up sci - fi images of soberness being falsify by a nuclear explosion , its substitute names – including the " barren - fall bomb " and " dumb turkey " – excuse its nature a little secure . just put , gravity bombs are bombs that are overlook from aircraft to their target , continuing on their ballistic flight without any further course chastisement from counseling system . Since guidance systems were n’t developed until afterWorld War II , all dud before then could be referred to as gravity bombs .
The US signed up to the Treaty on the Non - Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1968 , whichaimsto " prevent the banquet of atomic weapon and weapon engineering , to promote cooperation in the passive uses of atomic energy and to further the goal of accomplish nuclear disarming and ecumenical and consummate disarming " . Since sign language , the US ’s backlog has slowly reduced , though it and Russia have89 percentof the world ’s nuclear stockpile between them .
" The B61 - 13 represent a reasonable step to wield the challenge of a extremely dynamic security environment , " Plumb added . " While it put up us with additional tractability , production of the B61 - 13 will not increase the overall number of weapons in our nuclear stockpile . "
[ H / T : New Atlas ]
