Pentagon To Launch New Study On How to Get at Hard, Deeply Buried Targets
A senior defense official explains the thinking behind the Biden Administration’s nuclear policy document.
PATRICK TUCKER | NOVEMBER 3, 2022
NUCLEAR MISSILES
The newly released Nuclear Posture Review contained few surprises, but did call for the retirement of one element in the U.S. nuclear arsenal: the B83 megaton gravity bomb. Now, because of that decision, the United States must look at new means to get at deeply buried targets, a senior defense official said Tuesday.
“We're going to be doing a major study looking at what capabilities we could bring to bear to that challenge, whether those are nuclear or non-nuclear,” Richard Johnson, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear and counter weapons of mass destruction policy, said Tuesday at an Atlantic Council event.
The B83 can cause a 1.2 megaton explosion, nearly 80 times larger than the 15 kiloton explosion caused by the “Little Boy” bomb that the United States dropped on Hiroshima in World War II. Over time, Johnson said, large atomic gravity bombs have seen a “diminishment of usefulness.” The United States is moving in the direction of smarter weapons, like the so-called long-range stand-off weapon, an air-launched nuclear cruise missile, while China and Russia are focusing more on highly-maneuverable nuclear hypersonic missiles.
https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2022/11/pentagon-launch-new-study-how-get-hard-deeply-buried-targets/379326/
