Washington. America is preparing to make a new powerful nuclear bomb. It will be 24 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan during World War II.
The modernized version of B61 will be B61-13.
According to the announcement of the US Defense Department, this will be a modernized version of the B61 nuclear gravity bomb, which has been named B61-13. Right now it has to be approved by Congress (Parliament). According to a report, a statement issued by the Pentagon said that B61-13 will be manufactured by ‘The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration’. The B61-13 nuclear bomb weighing 360 kilotons will replace the B61-7, which means the number of nuclear bombs will not increase, but its stockpile will become more dangerous.
Many times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Japan
In comparison to the new bomb, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima weighed 15 kilotons, while the bomb dropped on Nagasaki weighed 25 kilotons. In simple words, the new bomb will be 24 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima and 14 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Nagasaki.
Announcement made amid increasing danger
Assistant Secretary for Space Defense Policy John Plumb said that this announcement has been made keeping in mind the changing and increasing threat in the current security situation of the world. He said, “We want to assure our country as well as our allies that we are conscious of the growing security challenges and are capable of giving an appropriate response if needed.”
No increase in the number of nuclear weapons
“B61-13 represents an appropriate step forward in managing the challenges of a highly dynamic security environment,” said John Plumb, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Defense Policy. “Although it provides us with additional flexibility, the production of the B61-13 will not increase the total number of warheads in our nuclear stockpile,” he said.
According to the fact sheet, the powerful new bomb will also “incorporate the advanced protection and accuracy features of the BB61-12,” according to a report. The announcement coincides with rising international tensions following the US’s high-explosive experiment at a nuclear test site in Nevada earlier this month.
