Updated November 20, 2024 Plutonium pits are a critical component of all U.S. nuclear weapons. The pit acts as a trigger: on detonation, the plutonium sets off a small nuclear reaction, creating a larger secondary explosion in the main nuclear payload. The United States produced between 1,000 and 2,000 pits per year during the Cold […]
Fact Sheet: Nuclear Sea-Launched Cruise Missiles
Updated June 2024 Despite the Biden administration’s previous decision not to pursue the development of a new nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N) and its associated warhead, the W80-4 ALT, due to cost and strategic considerations, Congress provided funding for the continuation of the SLCM-N program in the FY24 National Defense Authorization Act. In FY23 budget […]
Fiscal Year 2022 Defense Budget Request Briefing Book
Total National Defense Discretionary Spending Request (050) Allocation FY 21 Enacted FY 22 Request Department of Defense $703.7 billion $715 billion Department of Energy & Other Agencies $37 billion $37.9 billion Total, National Defense Spending Request $740.7 billion $753 billion (+1.7%) [Source: Department of Defense, FY 2022 Budget Briefing] Total Nuclear Weapons Spending Agency FY21 Enacted FY22 […]
STRATCOM Commander Makes a Misleading Sales Pitch before Congress
By Geoff Wilson and John Isaacs Admiral Charles Richard, Commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, painted a dire picture of the nuclear threats the United States faces from abroad, and claimed that they could only be met by renewing the U.S. commitment to nuclear dominance over the coming century. In his two days of testimony […]
Fact Sheet: The W93 Warhead
The W93 is a new nuclear warhead intended for deployment on U.S. ballistic missile submarines by 2040 at an estimated preliminary total cost of more than $15 billion in Department of Energy (DOE)/ National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Department of Defense (DOD) funds. Many questions surround the W93, particularly on its status as the first completely […]
