"NNSA is on track to complete the W76-2 Initial Operational Capability [IOC] warhead quantity and deliver the units to the Navy by the end of Fiscal Year 2019," an agency spokesman said, as quoted by Defense News. The spokesman declined to say how many warheads are in the pipeline.
The warhead design is a modification of the W76-1 warhead for the Navy’s Trident ballistic missile, which has allowed NNSA to quickly turn around the design since it was ordered in last year’s Nuclear Posture Review.
READ MORE: US Completes 20-Year-Long Naval Nuclear Warhead Overhaul
The warhead is designed to be smaller than the weapon detonated at Hiroshima, Japan, near the end of World War II, according to Defense News.
Earlier Warrior Maven, a military weapons news outlet, reported that the Pentagon has completed draft plans for its upcoming low-yield missiles. According to the US military, the new missiles will be both ship- and submarine-launched.
READ MORE: Pentagon Reveals Start for Its New Low-Yield Nuclear 'Russia Deterrence'
In March 2018 US Commander General John Hyten of the United States Strategic Command explained to Congress in his testimony that the Pentagon requires low-yield missiles as a "deterrence weapon" that can help to "respond to the threat that Russia in particular is portraying."
