12. Department of Energy and Related Commissions · Notable
Reverse the retirement of the B83 bomb and cancellation of the SLCM
Printed page 399 12. Department of Energy and Related Commissions
“If possible, reverse the Biden Administration’s decision to retire the B83 bomb (in order to maintain two aircraft-delivered warheads) and its decision to cancel the submarine-launched cruise missile (SLCM). Also undertake an evaluation of the need for nuclear antisubmarine and air defense weapons in light of emerging threats.”
What has happened
- Partially done
The submarine-launched cruise missile half moved: P.L. 119-60 section 1633 rewrote the FY 2024 authorization to require limited operational deployment assets for the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile by 30 September 2032 and initial operational capability by 30 September 2034, and the Act authorizes $50,000,000 for the SLCM-N warhead. The B83 half did not: the Act says nothing about the B83 gravity bomb, and no reversal of its retirement was found. The evaluation of nuclear antisubmarine and air defense weapons the Quote also asks for is likewise unsourced.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
Two-object ask with one object delivered, so partial.
Dating: the SLCM-N cancellation was already reversed by the FY 2024 NDAA in December 2023, before the evidence window; what is dated here is the FY 2026 Act’s acceleration of the program inside the window. A search of the enrolled text of P.L. 119-60 for “B83” and “B-83” returned zero hits.
This is a nuclear-posture item where an announcement is not an action, so only the enacted statute is counted.
- Action
- reinstate
- Object
- B83 bomb and submarine-launched cruise missile (SLCM)
- ID
- 1013