The United States' three nuclear warhead life extension programs continue at a slightly slower pace due to budget limitations, said Thomas P. D'Agostino, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration. "Over the last two years, the Administration's been very consistent at putting out a fairly significant program to do life extension work on the stockpile itself," D'Agostino said, speaking at a roundtable in Washington, D.C. The US commitment to regenerating the Air Force's B61 freefall tactical warhead and the Navy's W76 warhead carried on the Trident ballistic missiles "hasn't changed.... Just the pace has slowed down a little bit," he said March 8. NNSA is also studying future life extension needs for W78/88 warheads, fitted to the Minuteman III and Navy Trident II missiles, to keep the Air Force's strategic arsenal reliable in the years to come.
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