"The Air Force Just Dropped an Expensive (and Useless) Nuke in Nevada"

2015-07-09T12:03:50-04:00

From: Gizmodo
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In the face of mounting criticism, the Air Force just completed the first test flight of the B61 Mod 12 mock up nuclear bomb in the Nevada desert. This marks the next step in updating a cold war-era weapon that many experts consider to be completely useless today. The military might as well drop a nuke on a pile of taxpayer dollars.

The whole situation is frustrating, in part, because it’s based on some scary assumptions about an impending nuclear apocalypse. Since its development in 1963—a year after the Cuban missile crisis—the B61 has been one of top weapons in the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Capable of carriage in supersonic aircraft and a two-stage radiation implosion, this is a bad bomb that we might’ve dropped on Moscow if things had escalated with the Soviets.

However, as the New York Times editorial board explained things a couple years ago, the bombs are “the detritus of the cold war.” The updated B61s are also a very, very expensive detritus. President Obama is already throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at this program to keep these nukes on life support. The total cost of the program is expected to be as high as $11 billion by its completion in the 2020s, while the true nature of the upgrade is being masked.

This is a nonsensical decision, not least because it is at odds with Mr. Obama’s own vision. In a seminal speech in Prague in 2009 and a strategy review in 2010, Mr. Obama advocated the long-term goal of a world without nuclear arms and promised to reduce America’s reliance on them. He also promised not to field a new and improved warhead.

But refurbishing warheads from the 1960s is apparently cool. Meanwhile, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the Air Force still insists on referring to these types of weapons as “gravity bombs” in this modern era. This is misleading since a gravity bomb is really any unguided bomb. Really, it’s a nuke wrapped in a gravity bomb wrapped in a euphemism.

So it’s basically bullshit when Obama and friends talk up their anti-proliferation efforts. In truth, the government is still spending billions on nukes tuned towards the former USSR, while also doing nothing to influence with China, India, or Pakistan (or Israel) to rein in their nuclear programs. An expert gave a lengthy Congressional Testimony on this very topic just a few months ago. Similarly, the Air Force is actively updating its nuclear weapons operation in order to fight a nuclear war when the time is right. As Maj. Gen. Sandra Finan, the commander of the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, put it in an April press release, “Our mission is still to deliver nuclear capabilities and winning solutions that warfighters use daily to deter our enemies and assure our allies.”

This is what brings us back to those assumptions about a scary nuclear apocalypse. When politicians are telling us that they’re trying to create a world without nuclear weapons, it’s misleading for the military to just give nuclear weapons new names. It’s even more misleading to spend billions of dollars rebuilding and renaming old nuclear weapons, just so that those politicians can say that we’re not creating any new ones.

Just call a nuke a nuke. The Air Force just dropped an expensive and inevitably useless nuke in the Nevada desert. There was no mushroom cloud this time. But there’s always a next time.

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Response by PO3 David Fries made Jul 9 at 2015 12:10 PM

2015-07-09T12:10:12-04:00

A rather lengthy anti-nuke rant. Do I believe that we should be as reliant on them as before; no way. However, I don't believe we will ever live in a world without them.

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 9 at 2015 12:12 PM

2015-07-09T12:12:47-04:00

Our government is doing all of this as the Russians get aggressive along with the whole world.. smh

Response by CPO Joseph Grant made Jul 9 at 2015 12:14 PM

2015-07-09T12:14:59-04:00

We live in a world with nuclear weapons. We need nuclear deterrence. Just because we say we want a nuke free wold world doesn't mean everyone will get rid of their nukes

Response by Lt Col Timothy Parker, DBA made Jul 9 at 2015 12:22 PM

2015-07-09T12:22:58-04:00

I disagree with the premise of the author - a deterrent is of no use unless everyone knows you have the capability, therefore advertise the upgqrades so the other side knows you still have it. Also, the world has changed since 2008/9 when Obama said a world with no nukes would be great. In fact we all think that, but hostile countries that have nukes don't agree. Since 2008/9 the threat of outliers developing weapons increased making our deterent more meaningful. So, after going through this reasoning I wonder what the author really wanted to say? Maybe he's a true pacifist who thinks if we all lay down our weapons no one will pick them up again - if so, he's not a realist. Just my humble opinion.

Response by SSG Izzy Abbass made Jul 9 at 2015 12:23 PM

2015-07-09T12:23:51-04:00

I have to ask, do we really think we're going to seriously be using nukes anytime soon? I mean that seriously - not with some conspiracy theory ideas thrown into the discussion.

Response by COL Jean (John) F. B. made Jul 9 at 2015 12:48 PM

2015-07-09T12:48:25-04:00

Whether people like it or not, the fact is that the United States needs to have an effective nuclear program and arsenal to maintain deterrence. The idiots who advocate unilateral disarmament are just that - idiots.

The United States has allowed our nuclear arsenal to deteriorate to the point that it is in dire need of refurbishment/upgrade. Also, with the moratorium on testing, the reliability is not where it should be. We should resume testing and we need to refurbish/retool/upgrade our current weapons, if not produce new ones.

I, for one, don't care what our potential adversaries think about that. I am sure they are doing exactly that...

Response by Col Joseph Lenertz made Jul 9 at 2015 12:55 PM

2015-07-09T12:55:22-04:00

Well, in addition to a failed premise (nukes are useless), the author contradicts himself at least twice. First, he introduces the B-61, as it was called in 1963. Then he says the Air Force still calls it a gravity bomb "in this modern era" (as if gravity doesn't apply anymore?). Then he says, " it’s misleading for the military to just give nuclear weapons new names". Huh? He just got done complaining and explaining we're still using the SAME names. Then there's the "very, very expensive" part. $11B over what, 10 years? Expensive compared to what? AIDS in Africa was $15B. Where's the context? Well, I guess that's what we should expect when you use the NYT editorial board as a source.

Response by PO3 Steven Sherrill made Jul 9 at 2015 1:31 PM

2015-07-09T13:31:46-04:00

Alright that is it! I am pissed! I didn't want to do it, but my hand has been forced. I am releasing the secret weapon

Response by Capt Seid Waddell made Jul 9 at 2015 7:59 PM

2015-07-09T19:59:18-04:00

It is interesting that President Obama has pulled the ABMs from Poland and the Czech Republic, killed the YAL-1 Airborne Laser (ABL) anti-ballistic missile development program, cut back our strategic missile defenses, refuses to limit Iran's nuclear development, and then finds it necessary to refurbish some 5 or 6 decades-old nukes.

One would think that with his aggressive weakening of our defenses he wouldn't bother to see that those nukes that we still have will work in a pinch.

Response by SPC George Rudenko made Jul 17 at 2015 12:37 AM

2015-07-17T00:37:50-04:00

Wasn't a show for us, It was a show for North Korea, Iran, etc.