Current Nuclear Weapons Development

Uk has facilities.
Not clear if the new one has become operational. Much secrecy, and it's not clear of course if it's covering up failure or cost overruns or who knows what.
 
zen said:
Uk has facilities.
Not clear if the new one has become operational. Much secrecy, and it's not clear of course if it's covering up failure or cost overruns or who knows what.
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The UK is better at keeping things secret than the US is.
 
Why? its expensive, its obsolete, its unnecessary, and can only be used effectively by 18 aircraft. Best to strip it for parts and develop a modern replacement.
 
I can see the use case for 300 kT, but I am not sure what target set requires a megaton.

Also B83 is about three times heavier than B61.
 
Desertfox said:
Why? its expensive, its obsolete, its unnecessary, and can only be used effectively by 18 aircraft.
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It may or may not be that but its full yield is significantly more powerful than the B61, it is currently the only megaton-class weapon left in the US's nuclear-arsenal.
 
NMaude said:
It may or may not be that but its full yield is significantly more powerful than the B61, it is currently the only megaton-class weapon left in the US's nuclear-arsenal.
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What target needs 300kt delivered right on top of it?

At best, B83 physics packages need to be preserved for asteroid nudging.
 
I wonder if Elon is using his "special executive" access to get the details he needs to make an asteroid interceptor version of Falcon Heavy or Starship. With space for multiple booms to appropriately nudge things.
 
Scott Kenny said:
I wonder if Elon is using his "special executive" access to get the details he needs to make an asteroid interceptor version of Falcon Heavy or Starship. With space for multiple booms to appropriately nudge things.
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That wouldn't surprise me at all.
 
Josh_TN said:
I can see the use case for 300 kT, but I am not sure what target set requires a megaton.

Also B83 is about three times heavier than B61.
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Stuff that would not be bothered by a B61. Nukes aren't magic. Hell, I wish we still had B41s. Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
 
I'd rather have shaped nuclear charges. Something that can punch down Fusion plasma to drill out a deep bunker.
 
Scott Kenny said:
What target needs even 300kt delivered from within 10m?
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Well actually 30m is the n claimed CEP, though I would think 10-20 more typical. Guidance is INS only.

ETA: but yes, no one has provided a potential target for guided B83. I would think even the latest super hardened quartz concrete to be vulnerable to several hundred kT at a couple dozen meters CEP.
 
Josh_TN said:
Well actually 30m is the n claimed CEP, though I would think 10-20 more typical. Guidance is INS only.
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Mod12 and Mod13 are whatever accuracy JDAMs get. GPS+INS, possibly plus SALaser if someone is feeling froggy.



Josh_TN said:
ETA: but yes, no one has provided a potential target for guided B83. I would think even the latest super hardened quartz concrete to be vulnerable to several hundred kT at a couple dozen meters CEP.
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Also, the B61Mod13 is able to do 340-400kt (depends on source). B83s would be for something that required 1.2MT at 10m to destroy.
 
Josh_TN said:
Well actually 30m is the n claimed CEP, though I would think 10-20 more typical. Guidance is INS only.

ETA: but yes, no one has provided a potential target for guided B83. I would think even the latest super hardened quartz concrete to be vulnerable to several hundred kT at a couple dozen meters CEP.
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Cheyenne Mountain comes to mind. And it's probably soft compared to what's out there today. Or a good size iron asteroid. (If you don't happen to have a warhead laying around for conversion you're going to be SOL.) Or something like Three Gorges Dam.
 
Sferrin said:
Cheyenne Mountain comes to mind. And it's probably soft compared to what's out there today. Or a good size iron asteroid. (If you don't happen to have a warhead laying around for conversion you're going to be SOL.) Or something like Three Gorges Dam.
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Is a B83 really any more effective against a granite mountain? More over, would two B61s be a better option? Because they are like 1/3 the weight. You might fit 16 in a PAL capable SBA rack, if increasing bomber firepower was the goal. B83 is definitely rotary launcher only.

There are a number of B53 physics packages reserved for planetary defense. Moreover, that is hardly an argument for B83 PGMs: the physics packages would have to put into a completely different delivery system anyway.
 
Josh_TN said:
There are a number of B53 physics packages reserved for planetary defense.
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How many W53s have been set aside for this purpose? Given their age they'd need to have their primaries HE-lenses replaced with new ones.
 
Josh_TN said:
Well actually 30m is the n claimed CEP, though I would think 10-20 more typical. Guidance is INS only.

ETA: but yes, no one has provided a potential target for guided B83. I would think even the latest super hardened quartz concrete to be vulnerable to several hundred kT at a couple dozen meters CEP.
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Yamantau Mountain has entered the conversation
 
Josh_TN said:
There are a number of B53 physics packages reserved for planetary defense. Moreover, that is hardly an argument for B83 PGMs: the physics packages would have to put into a completely different delivery system anyway.
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You don't say?

"(If you don't happen to have a warhead laying around for conversion you're going to be SOL.)"
 

Officials: IOC for SLCM-N expected by 2034, shift in command may occur for E-6B mission | InsideDefense.com

Since the establishment of a nuclear-armed, sea-launched missile program office in March 2024, the Navy remains on track to achieve a key milestone by next year, as it assesses potential warhead options and researches how to best integrate the missile into Virginia-class submarines, a service...
insidedefense.com insidedefense.com

Air Force scraps plans to reuse ICBM silos for Sentinel, 10 years into program | InsideDefense.com

The Air Force's intercontinental ballistic missile modernization program will not be able to reuse existing silos as it had been planning since the beginning of the effort 10 years ago, potentially threatening the cost of a program that's already known to be massively over budget.
insidedefense.com insidedefense.com
 
Forest Green said:

Air Force scraps plans to reuse ICBM silos for Sentinel, 10 years into program | InsideDefense.com

The Air Force's intercontinental ballistic missile modernization program will not be able to reuse existing silos as it had been planning since the beginning of the effort 10 years ago, potentially threatening the cost of a program that's already known to be massively over budget.
insidedefense.com insidedefense.com
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I’m not delusional to believe my communication to elected and non elected officials would make any difference whatsoever but I’ve been talking about a “Nuclear Deterrence Agency” along the lines of the MDA whose sole mission (and independent budget) was the entire nuclear “mission” from laboratories to silos and everything in between.

The entire organization would wake up everyday with this mission.
 
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Josh_TN said:
My information is that mod 12/13 are INS only.
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Should still get you within 10, as the brief is "JDAM accuracy." I admit I was assuming the full JDAM guidance kit because people were taking the already-developed bits.

Not that being 30m away will save your butt versus the 340-400kt of Mod13, but it might not result in your immediate annihilation if it's 30m of solid granite and only 10kt of Mod12.
 
Scott Kenny said:
Not that being 30m away will save your butt versus the 340-400kt of Mod13, but it might not result in your immediate annihilation if it's 30m of solid granite and only 10kt of Mod12.
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A miss at even 100ft with a 1.2MT W83 warhead wouldn't save ones self;):D.
 
brownt62 said:
I was under the impression that B53 "physics packages" were being preserved for that?
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No, those were all disassembled in 2011.

It's B83s that are being preserved for that, though if I'm understanding the use of a nuke as a propulsion charge correctly, we'd be better off with bigger booms for the job. Like B41 big.
 
Scott Kenny said:
Like B41 big.
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Well the B41 primaries pits should still be preserved at PANTEX in Amarillo, Texas and the secondaries at the Y-12 plant in Oakridge, Tennessee. So all that would be needed to do is fabricate new HE-lenses for the primary (Along with the sphere to hold the assembly together), build a new radiation-case and associated channel-filler material (Along with the interstage) before reassembling them and with a new X-unit.
 
NMaude said:
Well the B41 primaries pits should still be preserved at PANTEX in Amarillo, Texas and the secondaries at the Y-12 plant in Oakridge, Tennessee. So all that would be needed to do is fabricate new HE-lenses for the primary (Along with the sphere to hold the assembly together), build a new radiation-case and associated channel-filler material (Along with the interstage) before reassembling them and with a new X-unit.
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And we'd want new insensitive-munition HE-lenses anyways.

This is all assuming that the various bits are still in existence and haven't been recycled or totally scrapped, of course.


The challenge with asteroid-nudging via nukes is that you want to bump them, measure course change, decide how big a bump you need (ie, detonation distance), deliver the next nudge, measure course change, repeat ad astra.

You can't just set up a single warhead on a big dumb booster and let fly. You can't just send a large number of nukes and have their bus on a fly-by. You need a bus with enough delta-V to come to a zero-zero intercept and deliver nukes there!
 
Scott Kenny said:
his is all assuming that the various bits are still in existence and haven't been recycled or totally scrapped, of course.
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From what I understand is that in the last ~50 years when a TN warhead is retired and dismantled the primary's pit and the secondary are preserved and stored in special containers at different locations.
 
NMaude said:
From what I understand is that in the last ~50 years when a TN warhead is retired and dismantled the primary's pit and the secondary are preserved and stored in special containers at different locations.
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Yes, but the material can be scavenged for other uses and B41 was retired so long ago it is hard to imagine they were not already recycled.
 
Josh_TN said:
Yes, but the material can be scavenged for other uses and B41 was retired so long ago it is hard to imagine they were not already recycled.
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Or that they'd be in a usable condition if they weren't. Thing is, if we created the industrial base, from scratch, back then, we should be able to do it again.
 

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