Current Nuclear Weapons Development

https://news.yahoo.com/iranian-nuclear-experts-parchin-samples-without-iaea-irna-080237161.html
 
Only USAF Making F-35 Dual-Capable

—John A. Tirpak 9/23/2015

​The US Air Force is the only F-35 user with a requirement that the jet be able to carry nuclear weapons, but that capability won't be available until the mid-2020s, Program Director Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan said. USAF's dual-capable requirement is "unique," Bogdan said in a planeside interview with Air Force Magazine at JB Andrews, Md., on Sept. 18, where the F-35 was being readied for display at an airshow. The delaying factor isn't the jet, however, but the weapon, he noted. The updated B61 tactical nuclear weapon "is not fully developed yet, and won't be ... until the '20s," Bogdan said. "So we don't see the marrying-up of our capability and that weapon until probably the mid-'20s, but it's going to happen." Bogdan said that B61 "shapes" were tested on F-35As "this summer" to provide testers with data on "the weapons bay ... the environment, ... heating, vibration," and other factors. Testers are now using that information "to make sure it's right," he added. The Department of Energy is building the weapon itself and the Air Force is building the bomb's tailkit. (See also Nuclear Lightning.)
 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/11886639/Russia-threatens-US-with-nuclear-arms-counter-measures.html

One notable howler:
The US is planning to replace 20 nuclear weapons deployed at Büchel airbase in western Germany with a more modern variant, according to details first reported by ZDF television.

According to the reports, the current B61 bombs are to be replaced with B61-12s, a newer version of the weapon which is more accurate and less destructive. The new variants can also be fired as missiles, while the older version had to be dropped from aircraft.
Click to expand...
 
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/russia-again-flight-tests-illegal-inf-cruise-missile/

Mark Schneider, a former Pentagon strategic nuclear forces policymaker, warned that the new missile is part of a large-scale buildup of Russian forces that is dangerous.

“The number of strategic and intermediate-range nuclear armed and nuclear capable missile systems announced by the Russian Defense Ministry and reported in the Russian and Western press is staggering,” said Schneider with the National Institute for Public Policy.

U.S. nuclear modernization efforts are over a decade from completion and pale in comparison to Russian strategic modernization, which includes new missiles, submarines, and bombers.

“We are now making unilateral reductions in our nuclear capability to comply with the seriously flawed New START Treaty and pretending the even more seriously flawed Iran deal is going to prevent Iran from enhancing its nuclear weapons capability,” Schneider said. “This is dangerous.”
Click to expand...
 
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/obama-administration-close-last/2015/09/28/id/693777/
 
http://defensetech.org/2015/09/30/pentagon-russia-violated-treaty-with-recent-missile-test/

A little more information

3M-54E_missile_MAKS2009-490x204.jpg


http://defensetech.org/2015/09/23/pentagon-acknowledges-upgrading-nukes-abroad/
 
http://sputniknews.com/russia/20151006/1028094315/russia-generator-innovation-day.html#comments
 
Boeing To Overhaul ICBM Testing


10/9/2015

​The Air Force has awarded Boeing $110 million for an overhaul of the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile flight test system. Under the contract, announced Oct. 2, Boeing will redesign the flight telemetry and termination system for the Minuteman III fleet with work set to be completed by Aug. 31, 2019. Work kicks off with almost $5 million in research, development, test, and evaluation funding in Fiscal 2015, taking place at Boeing facilities near Hill AFB, Utah, which houses the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, along with sites in California and Ohio. The Air Force periodically test launches unarmed Minuteman III ICBMs from its range at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., to ensure the fleet stays reliable. The service selects a missile and crew from one of its three operational ICBM bases, and launches the missile to a site in the Pacific Ocean near the Kwajalein Atoll
 
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/10/09/exclusive-us-officials-conclude-iran-deal-violates-federal-law/
 
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/russia-adds-111-warheads-under-arms-treaty/
 
Via the Drudge Report:

http://nypost.com/2015/10/11/obama-will-be-the-only-person-sticking-to-iran-deal/

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/11/middleeast/iran-ballistic-missile-test/index.html
 
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense-news/2015/10/04/ohio-replacement-submarine-orp-ssbnx-newport-news-electric-boat-general-dynamics-navy-john-casey-mike-petters-hii-huntington-ingalls-industries/73181904/
 
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-expanding-regional-nuclear-forces/

China is developing a nuclear-armed air-launched cruise missile as part of a military buildup of both its regional and long-range nuclear forces, according to a forthcoming congressional commission report.

The latest publicly available draft of the annual report of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission presents a dire picture of advancing Chinese military capabilities and declining relations with the United States.

“U.S.-China security relations continued to deteriorate in 2015,” the report concludes. “China’s aggressive behavior in the South China Sea and its unremitting cyber espionage against the United States were the key drivers of growing distrust.”

The military buildup of high-tech weapons “makes clear that China seeks the capability to limit the U.S. military’s freedom of movement in the Western Pacific,” the report says.

On the regional nuclear buildup, the report says “China appears to be pursuing a theater nuclear capability in addition to the strategic nuclear capability it has maintained since it became a nuclear state in the 1960s.”
Click to expand...

A chart in the report lists a total of 12 different cruise missiles, including the CJ-20, with ranges of between 62 miles and 932 miles.

“China is developing cruise missiles that are increasingly difficult for the U.S. military to detect and defend against,” the report said.

China’s ballistic missile forces also are growing more lethal with the addition of multiple warheads and precision guided warheads.

Beijing has 13 different ballistic missiles, both silo-based and road-mobile, with ranges of between 186 miles and 6,959 miles.
Click to expand...
 
http://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2015/10/14/americas_russian_nuke_obsession_108576-2.html

Beyond China’s growing arsenal, U.S. strategists need to pay far more attention how Chinese nuclear policy might change in coming years. Despite some good work in English on Chinese nuclear strategy and posture, we know far less about Chinese nuclear thinking than we do about Russian. This lacuna is made worse by the lack of Sino-U.S. discussions on nuclear weapons matters, and that the Chinese so far refuse to talk to us about arms reduction or limitation. Most importantly, Chinese nuclear doctrine may well be changing as China’s foreign policy and security strategy evolves.
Click to expand...
 
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/22/us-nuclear-pakistan-idUSKCN0SF2A120151022
 
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/21/us-iran-missiles-un-idUSKCN0SF22320151021
 
Military Always Under Attack

—Jennifer Hlad

​The military must change the culture so that every soldier, sailor, airman, marine, and civilian recognizes that “they’re under attack all the time,” Adm. Cecil Haney, commander of US Strategic Command, told defense reporters Thursday in Washington, D.C. While cyber command is still building its workforce, it also is important for people to recognize that “everyone is a cyber warrior,” Haney said. He also spoke of the importance of a long-range cruise missile, noting that the current Air-Launched Cruise Missile will be “decades past its expected lifetime” when a long-range strategic option comes aboard. “We must have a multi-pronged approach,” so that any adversary knows that escalating a conflict would be very costly, Haney said. A nuclear triad approach is important now and will continue to be in the future, he said, particularly in light of modernization and developments in countries like Russia and China. “We need this capability,” Haney said. (See also Lot 13 JASSM Contract Awarded and Lockheed Expands Facility for JASSM, Other Cruise Missiles.)
 
Navy Making Plans To Release SSBN(X) RFP That Will Result In $6B Contract

The Navy is making plans to release a request for proposals that will result in a $6 billion contract award for the Navy's top acquisition priority: the Ohio-class replacement program, according to a service official.
_________________________________________________________________________________

Navy, Air Force conducting triad commonality study to cut costs

The Navy and Air Force are conducting a study about common components across the nuclear triad in order for the military to modernize the force while cutting cost, according to a senior Navy official.
 
http://breakingdefense.com/2015/10/the-nuclear-option-long-range-strike-the-case-for-dual-use/?utm_campaign=Breaking+Defense+Daily+Digest&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=23266475&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_FE_9aeRMeLuRQBRMD9Y8q2eEJBiXUA_Oza8jEhaA7pyETltrxflSp2n2dZs3WPszL9cOqe77qY4VCZV8ZQ5S389v5Aw&_hsmi=23266475
 
STRATCOM chief cagey on FY-17 nuclear modernization discussions

Adm. Cecil Haney, head of U.S. Strategic Command, is adamant that the nation needs to invest in nuclear modernization, but offered little insight into ongoing Defense Department efforts to address the massive bill headed for the Pentagon's strained budget.
 
https://s3.amazonaws.com/ims-2016/PDF/2016_Index_of_US_Military_Strength_ASSESSMENT_MILITARY_NUCLEAR.pdf

Heritage Foundation's assessment of US nuclear weapons capabilities from 2016 Assessment of Military Strength

Rest of the report downloadable by section

http://index.heritage.org/military/2016/resources/download/
 
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/nato-chief-russia-conducted-several-tests-of-illegal-cruise-missile/
 
http://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2015/11/03/americas_ultimate_weapon_is_getting_old_108638.html
 
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/russia-test-fires-series-of-nuclear-missiles-during-strategic-drills/
 
Nope not a UFO everyone just a Trident II (D5) test.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/huge-light-across-the-sky-leaves-thousands-of-americans-terrified-a6725866.html
 
Ground Based Strategic Deterrent draft RFP release could come this month

Posted: November 05, 2015

The Air Force will release a full draft request for proposals
for its Ground Based Strategic Deterrent effort by early calendar year 2016,
though it may incrementally release draft RFP documents beginning this month,
according to a service spokesman.

The service on Oct. 30 posted a notice for pre-technology
maturation and risk reduction activities for the GBSD system. The proposed
sole-source efforts are early development work for the GBSD and recent industry
days indicate the Air Force will award multiple contacts during the technology
maturation and risk reduction phase. The Air Force plan will likely consist of
two to three contractors for the TMRR phase, one to two during the engineering
phase and a single provider for production and deployment.

"The government is continuing to develop its strategy for
these phases," said Air Force spokesman Micah Garbarino
in a Nov. 3 email to Inside the Air Force. "But endeavors to maintain
competition to the maximum extent possible."

The GBSD will recapitalize the infrastructure of the
Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, including its entire flight
system, weapons system and command-and-control infrastructure. The Air Force is
looking to renovate the existing launch control centers and reach initial
operational capability by 2027.

The TMRR would create a preliminary design, leading up to
competition for the development and production phase, according to the notice.
The Air Force's ICBM directorate is looking to enter into sole-source contracts
with potential prime TMRR contractors to accelerate the maturation phase. Those
primes could include Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Boeing, which
responded to the GBSD request for information in March and have already taken
steps to replace the Minuteman III.

Boeing expects the Air Force will award the TMRR phase
contracts in fiscal year 2017, Ted Kerzie, Boeing's
director of strategic missile systems futures, told ITAF in a Nov. 3
interview. Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman declined requests for interviews.

A planned 2017 TMRR award could keep the Minuteman
replacement on track for the late 2020s or early 2030s, when a nuclear bow wave
is set to crest across the services. In the Air Force alone, production and
development of high-cost platforms like the F-35A, Long-Range Strike Bomber,
KC-46A tanker and the T-X trainer replacement program will come to a head in
the 2020s.

That scenario has made affordability a priority for the GBSD
program, Kerzie said. The program could leverage
savings by retaining its silo basing mode, which is stipulated in the March
RFI, and the concrete facilities will be reused, Kerzie
said. But as the Minuteman system ages out, there will be little reliance on
the systems in place today, he said. Boeing could find savings by building in
modularity,

Kerzie declined to discuss the
company's modularity plans, but said commonality could be pulled from other
systems, such as the Navy's Trident Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missile.

"There are systems being fielded now or that could be fielded
that you could pull from a commonality aspect," he said.

While the Air Force is examining mobile options for the GBSD,
plans for a mobile launched missile are far in the future, Kerzie
said.

"There might be mobile elements of the weapon system up
front," he said. "But from a launch system perspective where you have a mobile
missile running around the U.S., it's a further type of [concept of
operations]." -- Leigh Giangreco
 
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-second-missile-launch-pentagon-20151109-story.html
 
California missile test: Social media nightmare or exactly what the Navy wanted?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/11/09/california-missile-test-social-media-nightmare-or-exactly-what-the-navy-wanted/?hpid=hp_no-name_hp-in-the-news%3Apage%2Fin-the-news
 
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/iran-stopped-dismantling-nuclear-centrifuges-senior-official-152200733.html
 
Putin TV: Russia’s Got a Dirty Bomb
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/11/putin-tv-russia-s-got-a-dirty-bomb.html

Short form: Russian TV broadcast footage of a meeting with Putin, with the camera looking over someone's shoulder and getting a clear image of a page in a report detailing a design of a submarine-deployed "dirty bomb" designed to reduce American coastal cities to radioactive wastelands. Supposedly the Russian government had a conniption and censored the image from later airings.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FgPBGteLzU
 
"Russia Reveals Secret Nuclear-Armed Drone Sub High-speed harbor buster shown on TV"
BY: Bill Gertz
November 11, 2015 5:28 pm

Source:
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/russia-reveals-secret-nuclear-armed-drone-sub/

A Russian document shown on state-run television confirmed that Moscow is developing a high-speed drone submarine capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.

The secret weapon was shown on a document during several Tuesday Russian television broadcasts of President Vladimir Putin announcing plans for new strike weapons capable of defeating missile defenses.

Disclosure of the nuclear-tipped, torpedo-shaped weapon was first reported by the Washington Free Beacon and has been dubbed Kanyon by the Pentagon.

A Kremlin spokesman confirmed Wednesday that the weapon, which Moscow is calling the Status-6 system, was inadvertently disclosed.

“Some secret information did indeed end up in front of the camera lenses, so it was later deleted,” Russian spokesman Dmitri Peskov was quoted by Interfax as saying. “We hope this won’t happen again.”

The document, first reported by the military blog Russian Forces, reveals that the drone submarine is in development.

“I don’t yet know about any measures, but in future we will, naturally, take preventative measures so that this doesn’t happen again,” Peskov said when asked whether action would be taken in response to the unauthorized disclosure.

The document revealed that the Kanyon project is called “Ocean Multipurpose System ‘Status-6” and the developer was identified as the TsKB MT Rubin design bureau, which has built all current submarines in service with the Russian navy.

According to a translation of the document the goal of developing the submarine is “damaging the important components of the adversary’s economy in a coastal area and inflicting unacceptable damage to a country’s territory by creating areas of wide radioactive contamination that would be unsuitable for military, economic, or other activity for long periods of time.”

The document describes the weapon as a “self-propelled underwater craft” that can be delivered by two classes of submarines, Project 09852 or Project 09851 boats. The 09852 is a nuclear-powered submarine based on what NATO calls the Oscar II-class attack submarine. The NATO code name for the 09851 could not be identified.

The document appears to state that the Oscar-class submarine will be capable of carrying four drones and the other will be equipped with either three or six.

Both submarines are relatively new and built in 2012 and 2014 respectively.

Information from the document also appears to say that the drone submarine will travel at a depth of 3,280 feet and at a speed of more than 56 knots.

The range is said to be 6,200 miles.

A schematic drawing shows the drone submarine to be nuclear powered with a “reactor module.” It will be controlled by command and control ships, support ships, a non-nuclear submarine “Sarov,” and a surface ship used for rescue.

Development plans call for a prototype to be built by 2019 and testing from 2019 to 2020.

U.S. officials said several months ago that the drone submarine is expected to carry a very large megaton-class warhead that could be used to attack harbors and coastal regions.

“This is an unmanned sub that will have a high-speed and long-distance capability,” said one official, who noted that the drone development is years away from a prototype and testing.

The Kanyon drone submarine is said to be a major worry of the U.S. Navy, which is in charge of conducting anti-submarine warfare.

Mark Schneider, a former Pentagon official, said the document appears to be an accidental disclosure that confirms the Free Beacon report that the weapon is designed to attack coastal cities.

“The speed and depth of the drone would be massively in excess of the speed and depth capability of any U.S. submarine as described by the Navy in unclassified publication or, indeed, any manned submarine in world,” said Schneider, a nuclear weapons specialist.

“A drone with these characteristics would essentially be invulnerable to interception,” he added. “This is alarming in light of the translation of the mission of the drone” to disrupting an adversary’s economy by causing massive radioactive contamination for long periods, Schneider said.

“The weapon appears to be an intentional violation of humanitarian international law if it was used,” he noted.

Pavel Podvig, who writes the Russian Forces blog, said he is unsure whether the disclosure is a security lapse or intentional.

The removal of the video from news organizations supports the notion the disclosure was a mistake.

The weapon “appears to be more or less the system” first disclosed by the Free Beacon, Podvig wrote.

“So, maybe Moscow decided that the leak would not be such a big deal,” he wrote. “Still, they would have probably preferred to keep some details out of it.

Podvig said the weapon appears to be a radiological weapon or “dirty bomb,” although delivery of a large nuclear warhead is not ruled out.

Pavel Felgenhauer, a Russian military analyst, also said the disclosure confirms the Free Beacon reporting on the Kanyon.

“Of course, the disclosure could have been deliberate—without knowing [the weapon exists] there is no deterrence,” he said.

Putin announced at a meeting of his national security advisers that Russia is building weapons to penetrate missile shields, such as the U.S. missile defense system.

Moscow insists that U.S. missile defenses in Europe are aimed at countering Russian strategic missiles despite repeated statements that the defenses are not capable of stopping those strategic weapons.

Ground based interceptors in Alaska and California also are limited in number and capability and aimed primarily at North Korean long-range missiles and future Iranian missiles.

Putin also said Russia is developing anti-ballistic missile defense systems but initially will “work on strike systems able to overcome any missile defense system,” the state-run TASS news agency reported.

Putin repeated his view that U.S. assertions that its missile defenses are aimed at North Korea and Iran “only cover up [their] true plans.

“Their true aim is to neutralize the strategic nuclear potential of other nuclear countries … especially our country,” Putin said.

Russia is building up its nuclear forces and updated its nuclear doctrine to lower the threshold for the use of such weapons in a conflict.

The buildup and doctrine have alarmed U.S. and NATO military leaders who have said that Russia is emerging as a renewed strategic threat under Putin, a former KGB officer who has said the collapse of the Soviet Union was a catastrophe.
Click to expand...
 

Attachments

  • Status-6-1.jpg
    Status-6-1.jpg
    113 KB · Views: 243
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrP7T9su8E0

Future Triad options 'Project Atom' in front of the HASC Strategic Forces Subcommittees
 
http://breakingdefense.com/2015/11/lrs-bomber-shows-failings-of-obamas-nuclear-strategy/

http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a18154/americas-nuclear-muscle-flexing-now-a-weekly-thing/
 
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/nov/11/inside-the-ring-pentagon-studies-new-mobile-icbm/?page=all#pagebreakk
 

Similar threads

Please donate to support the forum.

Back
Top Bottom