Two senior Democrats in the House of Representatives have asked the Government Accountability Office to study the need for a new nuclear warhead that would be manufactured to fit onto both ICBMs and sea-launched ballistic missiles.
At issue is the National Nuclear Security Administration’s first “interoperable warhead,” or IW-1, which would replace the land-based W78 warhead and the sea-based W-88, according to a March 21 letter from Reps. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) to Comptroller General Gene Dodaro. The program is expected to cost $12 billion to $19 billion, with the first production unit pushed back about two years ago from fiscal 2025 to fiscal 2030.
“We have questions … about whether the initial requirements and capabilities planned for IW-1 are well justified — particularly in light of recent improvements made to the W88 warhead — or whether there are alternative refurbishment options that could cost less and be performed more quickly to meet military requirements for US nuclear forces,” wrote Smith, ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, and Kaptur, ranking member of the House Appropriations energy subcommittee. “Moreover, the justification for the IW-1 has varied from a military requirement to a potential way to exercise design and production skills at the nuclear weapon laboratories.”
They asked for a GAO evaluation that would encompass at least four areas regarding the new warhead: the underlying requirements for and capabilities of the IW-1, and how those match up against the W78 and W88; the amount of consideration the NNSA has given to other options, such as refurbishing the existing warheads, and the expenses involved in each alternative; the impact that IW-1 or other options could have on agency research and development capabilities, infrastructure modernization, and other activities; and the implications of IW-1 and alternatives for warhead certification requirements and possibly resumption of explosive nuclear testing.
