{"id":23745,"date":"2025-04-10T22:09:44","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T19:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=23745"},"modified":"2025-04-10T22:09:44","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T19:09:44","slug":"b61-13-gravity-bomb-the-uss-newest-weapon-of-mass-destruction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=23745","title":{"rendered":"B61-13 &#8220;Gravity Bomb&#8221;: The US&#8217;s Newest Weapon of Mass Destruction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A new American nuclear weapon, a \u201cgravity bomb,\u201d 24 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima, is being rushed into production as global tensions escalate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, America\u2019s newest weapon of mass destruction is entering production seven months ahead of schedule as fears of a potential war with China continue to grow, the scientists who are building it said. Codenamed B61-13, it is a nuclear \u201cgravity bomb\u201d that was originally scheduled to enter production for the U.S. Air Force in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nuclear Deterrence<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This powerful new weapon, according to international media, is set to play a crucial role in US efforts to modernize its nuclear deterrent amid rising global tensions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The US Air Force \u201cresponding to a critical challenge and urgent need, used innovative planning that led to the delivery seven months early (\u2026)\u201d of the new superweapon, the statement said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Celebrating a major milestone for the B61-12\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qJ7aqwSTKdQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It will equip B-21 Stealth bombers<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A \u201cgravity bomb\u201d has no guidance system and is simply dropped from an airplane, relying solely on its bulk to reach its target. The B61-13 is designed to have a payload of 360 kilotons \u2013 equivalent to 361,000 tons of TNT \u2013 according to Interesting Engineering. In contrast, \u201cLittle Boy,\u201d the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945, had a yield of 15 kilotons, equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The weapon is designed to replace the older US nuclear weapons carried by the new US B-21 Stealth bombers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first B61 \u201cgravity bomb\u201d was created in 1968, making it the oldest nuclear weapon in the US arsenal. Plans for the B61-13 bomb began in 2023, following fears that Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine could spark a pan-European conflict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new American nuclear weapon, a \u201cgravity bomb,\u201d 24 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima, is being rushed into production as&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1808],"tags":[6790,6791,4917,2928,6792,70],"class_list":["post-23745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-defense-space","tag-b61-13-gravity-bomb","tag-mass-destruction","tag-nuclear-bomb","tag-nuclear-weapons","tag-nuclear-gravity-bomb","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23745"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23747,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23745\/revisions\/23747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}