The Pentagon is seeking congressional approval for its pursuit of a new nuclear weapon, which would serve to update US nuclear arsenals.

The Details: The weapon, the B61-13, is a variant of the B61 series of weapons that the U.S. first introduced in the 1960s. Production will not expand the U.S. arsenal, as the production of B61-12s will be lowered inversely, as B61-13s are produced. The weapon is estimated to be 22-24x stronger than the weapons dropped on Japan in World War II.

For Context: U.S. nuclear weapon development has been mostly paused since the fall of the USSR. The Department of Defense attributed the proposed advancements to no specific event, but a “changing security environment,” which includes ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Israel. Last week, Russia’s parliament passed a law that withdraws the nation from the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

Key Quote: A Congressional Budget Office report on the replacement effort said, “The nation's current nuclear forces are reaching the end of their service life, and some delivery systems may not be capable of having their service life extended further.”

How The Media Covered It: Fox News (Right bias) included context on a recent nuclear test conducted in Nevada earlier this month. Newsweek (Center bias) said during Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, he pledged if elected, he would "work to bring (the U.S.) closer to a world without nuclear weapons, so that the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are never repeated."