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Weapon Systems Engineering (W Division)

Serving the nation and our allies by providing a safe, secure, and effective stockpile

The Weapon Systems Engineering (W) Division provides system engineering and program management necessary to sustain the safety, reliability, and security of the Los Alamos National Laboratory-designed weapons in the active United States’ nuclear stockpile—the B61, W76, W78, and W88.

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Bradley Cox, a nuclear engineer specializing in radiation transport analysis, demonstrates a 3-D model, which is one of the tools used in the Advanced Engineering Analysis group, W-13.

The Weapon Systems Engineering Division (W) provides the system engineering and program management necessary to sustain the safety, reliability, and security of the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s assets in the active United States nuclear stockpile — the B61, W76, W78, and W88. The Division generates key certification data for annual assessment supporting the Laboratory Director’s letter to the President on the health of those warheads. This role demands ongoing surveillance of the active stockpile and evaluation of the potential impact of any issues through design, engineering, fabrication, testing using state-of-the-art computational simulation tools and engineering test facilities. The Division works in close liaison with the several production facilities across the nuclear security complex as well as with the customers in the US Navy and Air Force. The Division continually invests to advance the capabilities underpinning its mission in engineering, explosives safety and security. 

  • W-1: B61 Systems Engineering

    The B61 Systems Engineering Group (W-1) maintains the technical and programmatic safety, reliability, security, and certification of the Legacy nuclear warhead for fielded B61 nuclear gravity bombs (the B61 Modifications (Mods) 3, 4, 7, 10, and 11).

  • W-2: W76 Systems Engineering

    The W76 Systems Engineering Group (W-2) oversees technical and programmatic matters pertaining to the W76 Nuclear Weapon Systems and UK Trident Program.

  • W-3: W78 Systems Engineering

    W78 Systems Engineering (W-3) is the Laboratory knowledge focal point of the ICBM community, within both the National Nuclear Science Administration (NNSA) and the United States Air Force. This knowledge includes aspects associated with the W78/MK12A weapon, the W62/Mk12, and W87/Mk21 weapons. W-3 also houses individuals with critical knowledge of NNSA SS-21 process.

  • W-4: W88 Systems Engineering

    The W88 Systems Engineering Group (W-4) oversees technical and programmatic matters pertaining to the W88 Nuclear Weapon Systems.

  • W-8: Production Liaison

    The Production Liaison Group (W-8) is the design agency representative to the nuclear security enterprise production plants and ensures that weapon production activities at the production agencies meet design requirements and intent.

  • W-9: Weapon Systems Surveillance

    The Weapon Systems Surveillance Group (W-9) ensures, with a high degree of confidence through requirements-based surveillance, that each nuclear system is evaluated for performance, reliability, and safety for assessment against its system requirements.

  • W-10: Weapon Systems Safety Analysis

    Weapon Systems Safety Analysis (W-10) supports the overarching line and programmatic goals of the Nuclear Weapons Program in three functional areas.

  • W-11: Weapon Product Definition

    The Weapon Product Definition Group (W-11) supports and maintains of all the active stockpile weapons systems, hydrodynamic tests, sub-critical experiments, and related qualification efforts.

  • W-13: Advanced Engineering Analysis

    W-13 leads the development of computational engineering solutions and expertise in support of national security challenges. Group expertise includes structural mechanics, structural dynamics, heat transfer, radiation transport, thermodynamics, hydrodynamics, probabilistic methods, mechanics of materials, and numerical analysis.

  • W-DES: Digital Engineering Strategy Program

    The Digital Engineering Strategy Program Group (W-DES) seeks to establish a cohesive digital ecosystem for ALDW and the programs it supports. The role of W-DES is to manage our growing data generation and software tool expansion. The group plays a key role in developing and establishing a systems engineering approach to product lifecycle.