Major nuclear stockpile milestone assembled almost a year ahead of target date through streamlined production
National Nuclear Security Administration
May 19, 2025
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AMARILLO, TX – U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright announced at the Pantex Plant today that the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) has completed the manufacture of the first B61-13 gravity bomb, the latest modification to the B61 family of nuclear weapons. The first unit was assembled almost a year before the original target date and less than two years after the program was first announced, making the B61-13 one of the most rapidly developed and fielded weapons since the Cold War.
"Modernizing America’s nuclear stockpile is essential to delivering President Trump’s peace through strength agenda,” said Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. “The remarkable speed of the B61-13’s production is a testament to the ingenuity of our scientists and engineers and the urgency we face to fortify deterrence in a volatile new age. It was my honor today to stamp the first completed unit at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, where all the efforts of NNSA’s labs, plants, and sites culminated in this amazing milestone. This achievement signals American strength to our adversaries and allies alike."
A mainstay of the air leg of the United States’ nuclear Triad, the B61 is the longest-serving and most versatile weapon in the U.S. nuclear stockpile. While the B61 family can be delivered by a broad range of fighter and bomber aircraft, the B61-13 will only be certified for delivery by strategic bomber aircraft and deployed from bases in the continental United States. The B61-13 is one of seven ongoing warhead modernization programs NNSA is executing to ensure the reliability and effectiveness of the nuclear stockpile.
The B61-13 modification involved the use of proven production capabilities that supported the B61-12, which completed its last production unit just five months ago. The B61-13 incorporates the same modern safety, security, and accuracy features as the B61-12 but features a yield oriented to the defeat of certain harder and large-area military targets.
The Nuclear Security Enterprise, in coordination with the U.S. Air Force, completed the first unit of the B61-13 on a greatly accelerated schedule. Decades of B61 design and qualification data gave NNSA’s program managers and engineers from the national laboratories and production plants confidence that they could accept calculated risks to speed production. By streamlining or in some cases combining “design gates”—the rigorous reviews conducted at each step of a weapon design process—engineers were able to commence production far sooner than a standard schedule would allow. These efficiencies allowed B61-13 hardware “test builds” to be manufactured just three months after the program received authorization and appropriation from Congress.
"Accelerating production of the B61-13 while maintaining the highest standards of safety and security, and without disrupting our other six modernization programs, is a remarkable achievement," said David Hoagland, Acting Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs. "Balancing programmatic risk against the urgency of the deterrence mission showed great creativity and foresight on the part of our program managers and engineers. I'm confident many of these practices can be applied to future weapon modernization efforts, with promising implications for their delivery timelines."
The B61-13 will provide the President with additional nuclear options against certain harder and large-area military targets; separately, the Department of Defense will coordinate with NNSA to complete and implement a comprehensive strategy for the defeat of hard and deeply buried targets.
