OREANDA-NEWS. The United States began equipping Trident nuclear submarines with new low-power nuclear warheads, an article by the experts from the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) says.

According to them, at the end of 2019, the Tennessee submarine with such missiles first left the base in Georgia and went on patrol to the Atlantic Ocean.

The Donald Trump administration announced the creation of a new warhead in the beginning of 2018. The need for this was explained by the tasks of deterring Russia from the use of tactical nuclear warheads in the event of a conflict in Eastern Europe.

According to FAS estimates, out of 20 missiles in a Tennessee submarine one or two carry new W76-2 warheads, each of them with a capacity of five kilotons. One missile can have several warheads.