Global Security Newswire

The United States has wrapped up an eight-year effort to replace components in its B-61 gravity bombs, the National Nuclear Security Administration announced Friday (see GSN, June 27, 2008).

The project, finished nearly one year ahead of schedule, is expected to extend the life of the mod 7 and mod 11 versions of the weapon, which can be carried by B-52H and B-2A bombers. The mod 1, the predecessor of the current B-61 bombs, first entered the U.S. nuclear arsenal in 1969.

"This is the culmination of an ambitious continuing effort which helped to ensure that the nation's aging nuclear weapons stockpile continue to be reliable," NNSA Deputy Administrator Robert Smolen said in a statement. "Nuclear scientists, engineers and technicians across NNSA's national security enterprise contributed to this effort."

The United States built most of its current nuclear weapons between three and four decades ago, according to the NNSA release. Washington has not added to its atomic arsenal since the collapse of the Soviet Union (U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration release, Jan. 9).