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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.
Up to a point, and not always.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.
What target needs 300kt delivered right on top of it?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.
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.
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 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.
Hell, I wish we still had B41s.
Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
What target needs even 300kt delivered from within 10m?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.
What target needs even 300kt delivered from within 10m?
Mod12 and Mod13 are whatever accuracy JDAMs get. GPS+INS, possibly plus SALaser if someone is feeling froggy.Well actually 30m is the n claimed CEP, though I would think 10-20 more typical. Guidance is INS only.
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.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.
Mod12 and Mod13 are whatever accuracy JDAMs get. GPS+INS, possibly plus SALaser if someone is feeling froggy.
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.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.
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.
There are a number of B53 physics packages reserved for planetary defense.
I was under the impression that B53 "physics packages" were being preserved for that?What target needs 300kt delivered right on top of it?
At best, B83 physics packages need to be preserved for asteroid nudging.
Yamantau Mountain has entered the conversationWell 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.
You don't say?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.
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.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
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.My information is that mod 12/13 are INS only.
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.
No, those were all disassembled in 2011.I was under the impression that B53 "physics packages" were being preserved for that?
Like B41 big.
And we'd want new insensitive-munition HE-lenses anyways.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.
his is all assuming that the various bits are still in existence and haven't been recycled or totally scrapped, of course.
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.
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.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.