The National Nuclear Security Administration is “on track” with its W88 warhead, the agency’s acting principal deputy administrator said in a Senate panel last week.
“We’re on track with the W88, which is to achieve first production unit relatively soon,” James McConnell, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) acting principal deputy administrator, told the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces subcommittee last week.
McConnell apparently meant the last production unit, as the W88 Alteration 370 completed its first production unit in July 2021. An NNSA spokesperson confirmed this for the Exchange Monitor in an email Wednesday.
In a May 9 hearing, acting NNSA head Teresa Robbins also said the W88 Alteration 370 warhead maintains 100% on time deliveries to the US Navy, and is on track to finish production by the close of fiscal 2025. The NNSA’s Stockpile Stewardship Management Plan, released in October, said the program would complete production in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025 and will transition from modernization to sustainment in fiscal 2026.
The W88 nuclear warhead entered the stockpile in late 1988 and is deployed in the U.S. Navy’s Trident II D5 Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missile system. The W88 Alt 370 includes numerous updates to address aging concerns and enhance nuclear security, NNSA has said.
