US Navy deploys ‘nuclear warhead’ on sub for first time

Bloomberg

The Pentagon said it has deployed a new submarine-launched nuclear warhead for the first time as the Navy seeks to counter Russia’s war chest of smaller tactical nukes.
The Pentagon’s confirmation follows a controversial move last week to ease restrictions on the use of land mines, which are banned by more than 160 nations. The Trump administration in recent weeks has been setting the foundation to boost US weapon arsenal in a race against Russia and China.
US military leaders see China and Russia bolstering their nuclear forces and are incorporating that development into their strategic plans as part of the administration’s focus on “great power competition.” The Trump administration’s latest Nuclear Posture Review concluded that the US military’s regional commanders must update war plans to incorporate the use — in the most dire circumstances — of nuclear weapons.
The Pentagon’s 2018 report also called for development of a wider range of lower-yield nuclear weapons that can be launched from submarines and ships.
That decision has sharply divided lawmakers on Capitol Hill, partly threatening to upend the annual defense policy bill in the US House last year where Democrats sought unsuccessfully to ban the deployment of low-yield nuclear weapons.
“The US Navy has fielded the W76-2 low-yield submarine-launched ballistic missile
warhead,” John Rood, the Pentagon’s under secretary for policy, said in a statement which appeared to confirm an earlier report by The Federation of American Scientists (FAS). The FAS report said that an Ohio-class ballistic missile left Kings Bay, Georgia, for a strategic deterrent patrol at the end of 2019 carrying at least one W76-2 low-yield warhead on a Trident submarine-launched ballistic missile.
“This supplemental capability strengthens deterrence and provides the United States a prompt, more survivable low-yield strategic weapon,” Rood said.
“And demonstrates to potential adversaries that there is no advantage to limited nuclear employment because the United States can credibly and decisively respond to any threat scenario.”
The W76-2 may have a yield of less than 10 kilotons, according to a Congressional Research Service report (CRS) published in January. By comparison, the
“Little Boy” bomb the US dropped on Hiroshima, Japan during World War II yielded roughly 15 kilotons.
Supporters of the deployment of a low-yield warhead have argued that it would bolster deterrence by convincing Russia that the US could respond with a proportional, limited attack, according to the CRS report.
At the same time, critics contend that the deployment of new low-yield weapons could increase the risk of nuclear war because their existence would make it easier for US officials
to consider the use of nuclear weapons in a conflict, the report said.