Nuclear Warhead Modernization Plan Ambitious and Expensive

September 18, 2011. David Pugliese- Defence Watch

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA’s) latest Stockpile Stewardship Management Plan (SSMP) reveals expensive and ambitious plans for nuclear warhead modernizations over the next two decades, according to the Federation of American Scientists.

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From 2011 to 2031, NNSA plans to spend almost $16 billion on Life Extension Programs (LEPs) to extend the service life and significantly modify almost every warhead in the enduring stockpile. This includes an estimated $3.7 billion on the W88 warhead, $3.9 billion on the B61 bomb, $4.2 billion on the W78 warhead, $1.7 billion on the W76 warhead, and $2.3 billion on the W80-1 warhead.

These figures do not include almost $11 billion in additional NNSA expenses simply to maintain the stockpile, outside of the LEP programs. This brings total spending on nuclear warheads over the next twenty years to $27 billion. Billions more will be spend on the facilities used to build and service the warheads.

The ambitious life-extension programs will incorporate new safety and security features into the warheads that will change them from the designs that were tested and proven reliable in the past. NNSA acknowledges in the SSMP that this will increase the uncertainty about the warheads’ performance in the future and therefore wants Congress to pay for more and better simulation capabilities.

FAS and UCS question whether ambitious and risky warhead life-extension programs are consistent with NNSA’s primary responsibility to ensure the continued reliability of the U.S. nuclear deterrent, and recommend better and more transparent explanations for why it is necessary to incorporate additional safety and security features into the warheads.