The Pentagon announced a new tactical nuclear bomb program on Oct. 27. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and Sen. John Wicker, R-Miss., welcomed the new bomb because it "will better allow the Air Force to reach hardened and deeply-buried targets" in Europe and the Pacific. 

This B61-13 variant is designed for heavy blast against nasty targets such as underground enemy nuclear missile sites. That’s you, China and North Korea. 

And by the time the bomb is ready after the late 2020s, AI may have a hand in how and when it’s detonated.

AI is already part of the intense modeling for nuclear weapons design. Nuclear warhead tests are banned, so AI will help the operational check-out before the new B61-13 bombs are sent to weapons storage facilities at Air Force bases. 

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However, the most intriguing question is: How much could AI be involved in a tactical nuclear weapons launch decision? 

So far, the Pentagon is adamant that only humans and not AI will launch nuclear weapons. But the seeds of change are already present. 

"Artificial intelligence is extremely powerful," Gen. Mark Milley, retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told "60 Minutes" on Oct. 8. "It's coming at us. I suspect it will be probably optimized for command and control of military operations within maybe 10 to 15 years, max." 

Here’s why AI might just be crucial, even for nuclear weapons. 

First, AI is already improving targeting data quality. "It’s a lot easier to have an AI algorithm sort through the noise, especially if you’re looking at a lot of water," explained Margie Palmieri, the Pentagon’s deputy chief digital and artificial intelligence officer, in an interview with Military Officer Magazine.

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By the time the B61-13 is ready, AI will be fully integrated into conventional weapons targeting for combat aircraft. Crews and commanders will grow accustomed to teaming with AI for rapid evaluation of targeting alternatives. They’ll find the AI decision aids work pretty well, and give U.S. forces an advantage in the heat of battle. 

Of all the U.S. nuclear weapons, the new B61-13 is the perhaps most likely to be used in combat. If North Korea or some other foolish rogue uses a single nuclear weapon in a regional conflict, the new B61-13 launched from a bomber is designed to be the U.S. retaliation option. 

Of course, the nuclear weapons launch authorization will come from the president, who will then delegate it to the commander in charge. However, there’s a good chance the final choice of target for the B61-13 won’t be made until the Air Force bombers are already in flight. 

That’s when AI may play a very big role. Particularly when the mission gets dicey.

Look back at what happened the last time America used a nuclear weapon. On July 24, 1945, President Harry S. Truman ordered Gen. Carl Spaatz, commander of U.S. Army Strategic Air Forces, to drop the special atomic bomb on any one of four cities in Japan anytime after Aug. 3. Hiroshima was hit on Aug. 6, 1945.

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Then on Aug. 9 the crew of the B-29 Bockscar set out to bomb the city of Kokura, but they found the city obscured by a smoke screen from the Yawata Steel Works. The B-29 crew tried a target run over Kokura anyway, broke off, started taking enemy fire, circled again, ran low on fuel, then decided to fly the 95 miles to release the bomb on their alternate target of Nagasaki instead. 

Now picture B-21 pilots in the 2030s, faced with a mission to employ B61-13 nuclear bombs. Turning to AI for a generative, predictive evaluation of battle conditions may be the smartest choice. 

Those pilots will call on every bit of AI in their cockpit to check on collateral damage effects, pull information from the battle networks, locate the latest enemy missile launcher target positions, evade enemy aircraft and missiles are pursuing them, and more.

Why would reliance on AI even be necessary? 

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The U.S. expects to be outnumbered in a future battle fought at extended ranges. Aircraft on a tactical nuclear mission will have only a fleeting chance to hit targets. Maybe the target is a mountain bunker holding enemy nuclear weapons or elusive missile batteries in tunnels. 

If the U.S. president authorizes using a B61-13, that’s a mission that must be completed at all costs. AI will have a lot to offer in those tense moments. 

The Air Force also wants to buy a lot of unmanned planes for its future combat fleet. Years from now it’s possible that airmen will trust an unmanned plane with AI to carry a B61-13 nuclear bomb, if it’s the best way to get the mission done.

None of this will happen casually. The Air Force has an extensive nuclear certification and surety process. It will always take a human decision to deploy, fuze, load and get airborne with nuclear bombs. However, expect airmen to start thinking about how AI can strengthen nuclear deterrence. 

And if we don’t, China will.

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Eleanor Roosevelt, who holds the distinction of longest-serving first lady and who helped guide the American people through the Great Depression and World War II, died after a two-year battle with baffling illnesses on this day in history, Nov. 7, 1962. 

She was 78 years old. 

"A shy, awkward child, starved for recognition and love, Eleanor Roosevelt grew into a woman with great sensitivity to the under-privileged of all creeds, races, and nations," writes WhiteHouse.gov of the first lady who inhabited the executive mansion for 12 years (1933-45).

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"Her constant work to improve their lot made her one of the most loved — and for some years one of the most revered — women of her generation."

Born Anna Eleanor Roosevelt in New York City in 1884, she was orphaned at age 9, following the death of her mother, Anna Hall, and then her father, Elliott Roosevelt, the younger brother of President Theodore Roosevelt.

Mrs. Roosevelt was raised amid privilege by her grandmother, Valentine G. Hall, in the Hudson River community of Tivoli, New York. 

She married her distant cousin and future president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, of nearby Hyde Park, in 1905. 

She devoted her first years of their marriage to family life, giving birth to six children by 1916.

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"However, with American entry in World War I, she became active in the American Red Cross and in volunteer work in Navy hospitals," reports the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. 

"In 1921, Franklin Roosevelt was stricken with polio, causing Mrs. Roosevelt to become increasingly active in politics in part to help him maintain his interests but also to assert her own personality and goals."

Her international profile rose with the election of FDR as president in 1933 and then America's entry into World War II in 1941. 

"She transformed the role of first lady," writes WhiteHouse.gov. 

"She never shirked official entertaining; she greeted thousands with charming friendliness. She also broke precedent to hold press conferences, travel to all parts of the country, give lectures and radio broadcasts, and express her opinions candidly in a daily syndicated newspaper column, ‘My Day.’"

She chronicled her international exploits during global depression, world war and the United States' emergence as a global superpower in the column from 1935 until near her death in 1962. 

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"I often wonder if, in any way, we who are still on this earth could somehow tune ourselves better to the universe and get more real direction from those who must know so much more in the world beyond," she wrote in her column in April 1950, mourning the five-year anniversary of the death of President Roosevelt. 

"All we can do is to continue as best we can from day to day and hope that we follow the right path."

She continued to play an influential role in global affairs after her life in the White House. Most notably, she was an early leader in the emergence of the United Nations after World War II. 

President Harry Truman appointed Eleanor Roosevelt as delegate to the United Nations General Assembly in 1946. 

She served as the first chairperson of the organization's Commission on Human Rights and led the drafting of its Universal Declaration of Human Rights, published in 1948.

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Roosevelt was posthumously awarded the United Nations Human Rights Prize in 1968. 

The former first lady began to suffer serious illness in 1960, which often left her bedridden by fatigue.

Her death is attributed to aplastic anemia, tuberculosis and heart failure. 

But the various ailments in her final years confounded the medical community at the time. 

"This condition, aplastic anemia, not only causes extreme fatigue but also presents a huge risk of overwhelming infections, severe bleeding spells and organ failure," PBS News Hour reported in 2020, citing recent research by Dr. Allan B. Schwartz.

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"The chief problem was that none of her doctors knew what was causing her rare blood disorder. Given this was more than 50 years ago, the treatment options were rather limited."

Determined not to die in the hospital, Roosevelt defied doctors' orders while still able and discharged herself on Oct. 18. 

She returned to her home at 55 East 74th St. in Manhattan.

"Her prognosis was poor — by Nov. 4 she appeared to have suffered from a cerebrovascular accident or stroke," said PBS. "Three days later, she died in her own bed."

Roosevelt's funeral was attended by sitting President John F. Kennedy, past presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower, and future president Lyndon Johnson.

She is buried next to her husband in Hyde Park, New York. 

She is honored today, among many other tributes, with the Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial on Riverside Park on West 72nd Street in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a short distance from where she last resided and died on Manhattan's Upper East Side. 

"Again and again, she was voted 'the world's most admired woman,' in international polls," The New York Times wrote in its obituary.

"When she entered the halls of the United Nations, representatives from all countries rose to honor her. She had become not only the wife and widow of a towering president but a noble personality in herself."

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