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LEPs Significantly Modify Warhead Military Capability
published Tuesday, February 17, 2009  2934 Views :: 1 Comments
Under Life Extension Programs, DOE plans to upgrade every type of nuclear warhead in the planned United States arsenal. Upgrades have already been done on the W87 warhead and are nearing completion on the B61.

Upgrades of the W76 warhead are slated to begin in 2008. Modifications to the W76 are so extensive that it is being given a new number: the W76-1/Mk4A. A new fuse that allows for a ground burst capability and strongly improved accuracy for the reentry vehicle fundamentally change the military application of this Trident submarine warhead—it can now be used on “hard targets.” The Bush Administration recently decided to convert 2,4000 W76 warheads to W76-Is.

Congress refused to fund production of the last two new nuclear warheads proposed by DOE—the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (“Bunker Buster”) and the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW). It seems DOE is now making an end run around the Congressional rejection of new nuclear weapons by modifying the W76 through its Life Extension Program.

-From ANA's 2008 DC Days Fact Sheet


 



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