US will build its first new nuclear warhead in 40 years with multi-billion dollar sub-launched W93 needed ‘to keep pace with future adversary threats’ amid growing tensions with rival superpowers Russia and China [Video]

05:44 EDT 19 Apr 2024, updated 09:33 EDT 19 Apr 2024

The Pentagon is preparing to build its first new nuclear warhead in 40 years as a means to ‘keep pace with future adversary threats’ as tensions continue to grow worldwide. 

The W93 warhead, which will be designed to be launched from submarines, is part of a $19.3 billion budget being requested by the National Nuclear Security Agency in 2025. The production is set to begin in the mid 2030s. 

The revelation came as part of prepared remarks from Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby in a Senate testimony this week. 

Feasibility studies on the W93 have been underway at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the birthplace of the atomic bomb, since 2022. All U.S. warheads begin life there in a plutonium pit that was built by engineers in the 1980s. 

The new warhead is based on existing designs and therefore will not need to …