The United States announced on Tuesday that it had deployed a low-powered nuclear weapon on board a submarine for the first time, in response to Russia's development of similar weapons. "The US Navy deployed the low-powered W76-2 nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile launched from a submarine," Pentagon number two John Rood said in a statement.
When the new "nuclear posture" of the United States was published two years ago, the Pentagon had warned that it was going to modify some fifty nuclear warheads to reduce their power and put them on board submarines to to respond to a perceived threat from Russia.
Read also: The mystery thickens after a nuclear incident in Russia
According to Washington, Moscow is modernizing an arsenal of 2,000 tactical nuclear weapons, threatening European countries at its borders and circumventing its obligations under the New START disarmament treaty, which only counts strategic weapons used as the basis of doctrine. deterrence, based on “mutual assured destruction” . These tactical nuclear weapons, less powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, would allow Moscow to regain the advantage over the West in the event of conflict.
Washington's deployment of this first low-powered nuclear weapon is intended to "strengthen deterrence" and give the United States a "quick and less deadly" response capability, said John Rood, confirming information from a group of experts, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS).
Read also: Accident in a Russian submarine: it is indeed a nuclear model
The W76-2 nuclear warhead, which has an estimated explosive charge of 5 kilotons, was deployed in late 2019 aboard the submarine USS Tennessee , which patrols in the Atlantic, according to two FAS experts, William Arkin and Hans Kristensen . This is three times less than the 15 kilotons of the Hiroshima bomb, and very little compared to the 455 and 90 kilotons of nuclear weapons already on board American submarines, they say.