James Sterngold at the San Francisco Chronicle has a detailed update on the Reliable Replacement Warhead Program:
The first warhead to be upgraded will be the W76, which is deployed on the submarine-based Trident missiles. But whether that missile will still work as designed with a new warhead, without substantial modifications, is yet to be proven.
“You can’t just have a conversation about the warheads—it has to be about the delivery systems and even the military’s command and control,” said John Browne, a weapons designer and former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. “These things are part of an interrelated system. That’s what people forget.”
The W-76, regular readers may remember, has been the poster child for a new nuclear design, based on an alleged problem with the design.
On a reated note, NPR’s “All Things Considered” aired a story about the RRW featuring Stephen Schwartz, Joe Martz, Linton Brooks, Dick Garwin, and Bob Peurifoy—who is working on a revised proposal for a Uranium Reliable Replacement Warhead.