Trump talks of secret new weapon

Talking about U.S‭. ‬military might‭, ‬President Donald Trump said‭ ‬“We have built a nuclear‭, ‬a weapon‭, ‬I have built a weapon system that nobody’s ever had in this country before‭,‬”‭. ‬“We have stuff that you haven’t even seen or heard about‭. ‬“There’s nobody‭. ‬What we have is incredible‭.‬”‭ ‬Some weapon experts think he may have been talking about a nuclear warhead that was modified to reduce its explosive power‭. ‬Known as the W76-2‭, ‬this weapon certainly is unknown to the general public‭ ‬—‭ ‬not because of secrecy or mystery but because of its obscurity‭. ‬“We have some systems that nobody knows about‭. ‬And‭, ‬frankly‭,‬”‭ ‬he said‭.‬
James Acton‭, ‬a nuclear expert‭, ‬said that Trump may have been referring to the W76-2‭ ‬warhead‭. ‬Although its existence was not a secret‭, ‬the timing of its first deployment was‭. ‬The warhead is on the business end of a Trident II D-5‭ ‬missile carried aboard Navy‭ ‬ballistic missile submarines‭.‬
The W76-2‭ ‬weapon itself is not revolutionary‭. ‬It’s not even the only low-yield warhead in the U.S‭. ‬arsenal‭. ‬It is‭, ‬however‭, ‬the first major addition to the strategic nuclear force in recent decades‭.‬
Trump occasionally mentions his interest in hypersonic weapons‭, ‬sometimes without using the term‭. ‬Details of these weapons‭’ ‬planned capabilities are mostly classified‭. ‬In February‭, ‬Trump said‭: ‬“We have the super-fast missiles‭ ‬—‭ ‬tremendous number of the super-fast‭. ‬We call them‭ ‬‘super-fast‭,‬’‭ ‬where they’re four‭, ‬five‭, ‬six and even seven times faster than an ordinary missile‭. ‬We need that because‭, ‬again‭, ‬Russia has some‭.‬”
A hypersonic weapon is one that flies at speeds in excess of Mach 5‭, ‬or five times the speed of sound‭. ‬Most American missiles‭, ‬such as those launched from aircraft to hit other aircraft or ground targets‭, ‬travel between Mach 1‭ ‬and Mach 5‭, ‬although the Minuteman 3‭ ‬intercontinental ballistic missile‭, ‬which has operated for decades‭, ‬can reach hypersonic speeds‭.

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