B61-13 program begins
Responding to a critical challenge and urgent need, the B61-13 program used innovative program planning that resulted in projected delivery seven months earlier than expected, a more than 25% decrease in overall time to first production unit. The B61-13 team reprioritized qualification activities, planned tests with U.S. Air Force stakeholders and jointly completed requirements with Los Alamos National Laboratory and NNSA. Their creativity in system qualification put an aggressive set of plans in motion to meet stakeholder expectations.
Cross-enterprise team rethinks weapon design and delivery
A subteam of the Enhanced Mission Delivery Initiative Stockpile Modernization working group, with representatives from all NNSA laboratories, plants and sites, made a significant effort to understand what it would take to deliver a weapon system in less than five years — from DOD documentation through a letter of intent to the final rate production. This clean-sheet approach to weapon design and production will be applied to the Sea-Launched Cruise Missile-Nuclear program, and some aspects of the approach will be applied to the W93 program.
Mk21 Fuze quality engineering release comes ahead of schedule
An acceptable qualification engineering release for the Mk21 Fuze modernization program was 10 weeks ahead of schedule, which enabled an early first production unit at the Kansas City National Security Campus. To achieve the early release, team members from multiple divisions and from KCNSC collaborated to address technical, manufacturing and programmatic challenges. This achievement demonstrates the level of commitment and technical excellence the team displayed in delivering a critical component to the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile.
W80-4 warhead and missile integration
Sandia’s W80-4 Integration Test team, in partnership with Raytheon and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, successfully completed a series of combined missile and warhead ground tests incorporating version 2 joint-test-assembly-configured warhead hardware along with the latest Long Range Stand-off missile hardware. The ground tests met several objectives to provide confidence in the integrated functional performance of the warhead and missile in preparation for flight testing.
W76-1/2 program completes critical qualification testing
The W76-1/-2/Mk4B program overcame a critical qualification step by completing the Hazards of Electromagnetic Radiation to Ordnance testing. The testing ensures that the system will remain safe and maintain performance when exposed to electromagnetic radiation sources during its lifetime. The testing validated the performance of the joint flight assembly, the Mk4B system and the W76-1/-2 ALT 939 Integrated Surety Architecture and represents an important milestone for all three programs toward first production units.
Rapid setup of SLCM-N teams and framework
The rapid development of the Sea-Launched Cruise Missile-Nuclear program is unprecedented, and the nation is standing up the nuclear deterrence program in record time. As a member of the cross-site team, Sandia is managing Phase 6.2 feasibility and down-selection, including a study on alternative warheads in fiscal year 2025. Sandia stepped in to support NNSA and DOD customers and led enterprise-wide teams to develop a down-selection framework to support decision-makers.
