Washington. December 5th. INTERFAX - The United States will produce 480 new tactical nuclear bombs in the B61-12 modification by 2025, according to the Federation of American Scientists.
This number exceeds the arsenals of nuclear weapons at the disposal of China, France, Britain, Pakistan, India, North Korea and Israel.
The B61-12 nuclear bombs are a modification of the previous versions of the B61-3, 4, 7, 10 and 11 ammunition. They are designed to equip the B-2 Spirit strategic stealth bombers and the B-21 Raider being developed, as well as American and other NATO fighter-bombers in Europe.
According to various estimates, currently in the European theater of operations, the United States has from 100 to 150 nuclear bombs for use by tactical aviation.
Thus, the United States is going to triple its tactical nuclear potential. The bombs are designed to equip tactical fighter-bombers F-35A, F-15E and F-16C/D, F/A-18 and Tornado of the US Air Force and other NATO member countries.
The US National Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA) last week reported that the production of new nuclear bombs was launched at the end of November at the Pantex enterprise ("Pantex") in Texas. According to reports, the United States already has at least ten such new ammunition.
Most of them may initially be located on the continental part of the United States. Then they will arrive at warehouses at air bases in Europe.
The B61-12 bombs (with a capacity of 0.3, 1.5, 10 or 50 kilotons), in particular, are supposed to be placed in underground warehouses at air bases in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Turkey, which are under the control of the US military.
