 European deployments of warheads by NATO countries are cited as a reason for the low-yield Mod 12.With reductions planned of nuclear weapons in Europe, which may retire the older Mod 3 and 4 and the Mod 10 already slated for retirement, and the possibility that European nations may not build or procure new aircraft to carry the Mod 12 would eliminate the need for consolidation into a new type.As of 2013 the Pentagon saw the B83 nuclear bomb as a "relic of the Cold War," believing that deploying a megaton-yield gravity bomb, the highest level nuclear weapon left in the U.S. inventory, to Europe is "inconceivable" at this point.