The United States has expedited the production of a powerful new nuclear warhead due to “urgent need,” according to a news release from defense contractor Sandia National Laboratories.

SNL wrote it used “innovative program planning” to accelerate the production of its B61-13 bomb and it is seven months ahead of schedule. That decision came in response to “a critical challenge and urgent need,” it wrote.

“The B61-13 team reprioritized qualification activities, planned tests with U.S. Air Force stakeholders and jointly completed requirements with Los Alamos National Laboratory and NNSA,” the company said. “Their creativity in system qualification put an aggressive set of plans in motion to meet stakeholder expectations.”

The B61-13 bomb has a 360-kiloton yield, according to the Federation of American Scientists (FAS). That figure makes the bomb 24 times stronger than the “Little Boy” bomb used by the U.S. on Hiroshima in 1945 that produced a yield of 15 kilotons.

“The B61-13 will strengthen deterrence of adversaries and assurance of allies and partners by providing the President with additional options against certain harder and large-area military targets,” the Department of Defense wrote in 2023. “Deterrence and assurance are enhanced if the United States can continue to deny an adversary sanctuary from attack.”

The Pentagon in 2023 also acknowledged production of the bomb “is reflective of a changing security environment and growing threats from potential adversaries.”

“The United States has a responsibility to continue to assess and field the capabilities we need to credibly deter and, if necessary, respond to strategic attacks, and assure our allies,” then-Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John Plumb wrote.

Production of the bomb was initiated under the Biden administration. FAS wrote in 2023 the Biden administration justified producing the bomb by arguing it would “replace all other nuclear gravity bombs.”

“The military justification for adding the B61-13 to the stockpile is hard to see,” FAS wrote. “Defense officials say that the decision is not related to current events or developments in China, Russia or other potential adversaries. Nor is the administration’s decision a product of the hard and deeply buried target capability study mentioned in the 2022 Nuclear Posture Review.”

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