Babylon the Great Shows Her Might

U.S. test-fires nuclear-capable ballistic missile from California coast

In this image taken with a slow shutter speed and provided by the U.S. Air Force, an unarmed Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missile launches during an operational test just after midnight, Wednesday, May 3, 2017, at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

2nd Lt. William Collette/U.S. Air Force via AP

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — An unarmed missile capable of sending a nuclear bomb across the world was launched Wednesday from a coastal California military base amid rising tensions between the U.S. and North Korea.
The unarmed Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missile blasted off from a silo at 12:02 a.m. from Vandenberg Air Force Base and delivered a single re-entry vehicle to a target about 4,200 miles away at Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, the Air Force Global Strike Command said.
The test took 10 months to plan. It was the latest aimed at checking the readiness and accuracy of a weapon system that forms part of the U.S. nuclear force. The U.S. has about 450 of the missiles. Each can travel about 8,000 miles.
It was the second such launch in seven days from the base on the California coast between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Last week’s launch had been delayed from the fall.
The launches came amid U.S. expressions of concern about North Korea’s nuclear capability.
New missile tests by North Korea and its progress toward developing a nuclear weapon capable of hitting the United States have made the isolated communist dictatorship one of the top U.S. national security concerns.
The U.S. has sent warships to the region to deter North Korea from conducting another nuclear test
But President Trump on Monday said he might be willing to meet with that country’s dictator, Kim Jong Un.
“If it would be appropriate for me to meet with him, I would absolutely, I would be honored to do it,” Mr. Trump told Bloomberg News.

© 2017 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Babylon the Great Upgrades Her Nukes

U.S. begins testing of upgraded nuclear bomb flights

BY SUSAN MONTOYA BRYANASSOCIATED PRESS
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories are claiming success with the first in a new series of test flights involving an upgraded version of a nuclear bomb that has been part of the U.S. arsenal for decades.
Work on the B61-12 has been ongoing for years, and government officials say the latest tests using mock versions of the bomb will be vital to the refurbishing effort.
An F-16 from Nellis Air Force Base dropped an inert version of the weapon over the Nevada desert last month to test its non-nuclear functions as well as the plane’s ability to carry the bomb.
With a mere puff of dust, the mock bomb landed in a dry lake bed at the Tonopah Test Range.
“It’s great to see things all come together: the weapon design, the test preparation, the aircraft, the range and the people who made it happen,” Anna Schauer, director of Sandia’s Stockpile Resource Center, said in a statement.
Scientists are planning to spend months analyzing the data gathered from the test.
Tracking telescopes, remote cameras and other instruments at the test range recorded information on the reliability, accuracy and performance of the weapon under conditions that were meant to replicate real-world operations.
More test flights are planned over the next three years, and officials with the National Nuclear Security Administration said the first production unit of the B61-12 — developed under what is called the Life Extension Program — is scheduled to be completed in 2020.
The B61-12 consolidates and replaces four older versions in the nation’s nuclear arsenal. It’s outfitted with a new tail-kit assembly and other hardware.
The weapon is much different than the non-nuclear “mother of all bombs” used in Afghanistan this week to attack an Islamic State stronghold near the Pakistani border. The Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, or MOAB, isn’t designed to penetrate like the B61-12 but rather create a large blast over the surface and it has to be ferried by a much larger plane given its size.
In Nevada, it took two passes before the pilot could drop the mock B61-12. A herd of wild horses had to be chased away on the first go-around.
With the run commencing, people gathered on balconies at the range despite knowing they would see only dust rising from the target miles away. A video feed showed the test bomb fall through the air after being released by the F-16.
Officials said it left behind a rather neat hole. Crews were able to dig the mock weapon out of the dirt so it could be packed up and returned to Albuquerque for further study.

Babylon the Great Tests New Nukes

Pentagon Successfully Tests Upgraded B61-12 Nuclear Bomb on F-16 for First Time
“An Air Force F-16 aircraft released an inert B61 nuclear bomb in a test recently, demonstrating the aircraft’s capability to deliver the weapon and testing the functioning of the weapon’s non-nuclear components, including the arming and fire control system, radar altimeter, spin rocket motors and weapons control computer. The F-16 from the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron at Nellis AFB, Nevada, released the weapon over the Nellis Test and Training Range Complex in the first test use of the upgraded B61, known as the B61-12, with the F-16 aircraft,” the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center said in a statement.
The US National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said that the test was the first in a series of similar events necessary to qualify the upgrade for service.
The B61, one of the Pentagon’s primary thermonuclear weapons, is in the process of a major upgrade. Last year, the NNSA announced that the B61-12 warhead life extension program (LEP) had entered the production engineering phase, which is the final stage before production.
The $11 billion program, aimed at improving the bomb’s safety, security and reliability, will help to extend the life of the aging B61 nuke by two decades. According to the NNSA, the upgraded modification of the weapon designed in 1963 is expected to enter the production stage in 2020.
The latest version of the bomb will replace four previous modifications, known as Mod 3, 4, 7, and 10.
The test of the B61-12 was carried out on March 14, but the announcement was made on April 13, the same day that Washington dropped a GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) in Afghanistan. The mission marked the first time the weapon, nicknamed the “Mother of All Bombs,” was used in combat. The GBU-43/B is the largest non-nuclear weapon in the Pentagon’s arsenal.