U.S. Nuclear Forces: News and Discussion

Air Force Makes Pitch for New ICBM, Nuclear Cruise Missile

The nation’s nuclear deterrent triad isn’t what it used to be, the Air Force said Tuesday in a pitch for the nation to take on the huge costs of modernization.

The Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles in silos throughout the northwest are based on 1960s technology upgraded once in the 1980s and are “working well beyond their service lives,” said Air Force Lt. Gen. Jack Weinstein.

The Minuteman missiles should be replaced by new missiles, dubbed the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent by the Air Force, said Weinstein, deputy chief of staff for strategic deterrence and nuclear integration.

As part of a panel of nuclear experts at the Air Force Association’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference 2016 in National Harbor, Maryland, Weinstein also argued for a nuclear cruise missile to be called the Long Range Standoff (LRSO) as a replacement for the Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM).

“I think the LRSO is the most critical piece of the modernization effort” for its ability to be launched from all bombers in the U.S. fleet — the B-52, B-1, B-2 and the future B-21, christened the “Raider” at the AFA on Monday, Weinstein said.

Weinstein said he was leaving the discussion of costs to another day, but said the Air Force had no choice but to press ahead as Russia and China upgrade their own nuclear arms and North Korea seeks to develop a warhead to fit on a long-range missile capable of hitting the U.S.

However, the estimated cost of the LRSO is $20 billion, the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent is put at upward of $60 billion, and various projections for the B-21 put the cost in the neighborhood of $100 billion. At the same time, the Navy is pressing for replacements for its Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines at a cost of upward of $80 billion.

Ronald Lehman, chairman of the Defense Department’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Threat Reduction Advisory Committee, backed Weinstein on the need for the LRSO and Ground Based Strategic Deterrent. Without them, “the unthinkable may become thinkable in the minds of some adversaries,” Lehman said.

To underscore the need for nuclear modernization, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter next week will go to Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota — home to the B-52H Stratofortress bombers of the 5th Bomb Wing and the Minuteman ICBMs of the 91st Missile Wing.

On Sept. 27 and 28, Carter will be in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to thank personnel at Kirtland Air Force Base for their work to ensure the readiness of the nuclear force, the Defense Department said in a release. The base is home to critical operational, testing, storage and development units.

http://www.defensetech.org/2016/09/20/air-force-makes-pitch-for-new-icbm-nuclear-cruise-missile/

America’s Updated B61 Nukes to Cost Taxpayers Over $9 Billion

Read more: https://sputniknews.com/military/201610201046562353-b61-upgrade-cost-estimates/

The American program for the creation of a new intercontinental ballistic missile.

US Air Force began its consideration of applications from Northrop, Boeing and Lockheed to develop replacement for Minuteman-III, an intercontinental ballistic missile silo-based.



http://bmpd.livejournal.com/2275400.html

More Money: Pentagon Approves $125 Billion Nuclear Submarine Expansion

The Pentagon Under Secretary for Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, Frank Kendall, has officially signed off on a top-priority $125-billion Navy program to buy 12 sophisticated, nuclear-capable submarines.

Specifically, a recent "continuing resolution," or partially-annualized budget, passed by the Senate in late 2016, authorized the use of $773 million to go toward the program. Kendall’s decision makes that procurement official.

The Columbia-class underwater ballistic missile warships are poised to begin construction in 2021. The 171 meter submarines use a slew of propulsion mechanisms, including nuclear, a turbo-electric drive, and a pump-jet. The submarines can be equipped with 16 Trident D5 submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Trident D5s are reported to allow US and UK navies to achieve nuclear deterrence with fewer submarines and are said to be almost as accurate as land-based ballistic missiles. Submarines are a vital component to the US Navy’s strategic nuclear force, according to the Pentagon, amplifying the significance of the approval of a top-priority US Navy weapons program.

"Without that $773 million, we’d still be twiddling our thumbs," US Representative Joe Courtney, ranking member of the House of Representatives subcommittee on seapower and projection forces, said, following Kendall’s move. Part of the $125-billion program includes approximately $30 billion in expenses dedicated to research and development for the US Navy’s next-generation Columbia-class nuclear submarines. The finished project will coincide with the phasing out of the US fleet’s previous Ohio-class submarines.

Outgoing US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter previously lambasted the US Congress for its failure to pass an adequate, full-year budget, which in 2013 caused a temporary federal government shutdown. The continuing resolution puts military commanders in a "straight jacket,"Carter said in a Congressional Research Service brief. These types of budgets from the US Senate hinder the Pentagon’s capacity to "keep pace with complex national security challenges," he added.

Read more: https://sputniknews.com/military/201701071049343176-money-pentagon-billions-nuclear-submarine/

Nuclear Strike Survival for Russia, China Get New U.S. Review

U.S. intelligence agencies and the Pentagon’s Strategic Command are working on a new evaluation of whether the Russian and Chinese leadership could survive a nuclear strike and keep operating,

Under the little-noticed provision in this year’s defense authorization measure, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the U.S. Strategic Command -- which plans and would execute nuclear strikes -- will evaluate the post-attack capabilities of the two nuclear powers. The law mandates a report on Russian and Chinese “leadership survivability, command and control and continuity of government programs.”

The review is to include “the location and description of above and underground facilities important to the political and military” leadership and which facilities various senior leaders “are expected to operate out of during crisis and wartime.”

Targeting “leadership and relocation locations is part of long-standing U.S. strategy to make clear that potential enemy leaders understand they cannot win a nuclear war,” Franklin Miller, a former senior Pentagon official who served under seven defense secretaries and as the National Security Council’s senior director for defense policy and arms control, said in an interview.

Nuclear leaders in Russia and China “plan to direct nuclear forces from inside command bunkers buried deeply beneath the earth or deeply inside mountains,” said Bruce Blair, a Princeton University research scholar on nuclear security policy and co-founder of Global Zero, a group devoted to eliminating nuclear weapons.

Turner’s statement implies that “deterring them requires U.S. strategic cruise missiles that can maneuver around the mountains to strike the bunkers from any angle,” Blair said.

imagine the outrage if this review is made by Russia..

The US Congress has directed intelligence agencies and the Pentagon’s Strategic Command to evaluate the ‘survivability’ of Russian and Chinese leaders in the event of a nuclear strike on their aboveground and underground defense facilities.

The comprehensive study will be carried out by the US intelligence agencies as well as the Strategic Command, which is in charge of the American nuclear forces. They will evaluate whether the Russian and Chinese leadership could survive a nuclear attack and continue to operate in a post-strike environment, according to a little-reported section of the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

The review will include “an identification of which facilities various senior political and military leaders of each respective country are expected to operate out of during crisis and wartime,” as well as the “location and description of above-ground and underground facilities important to the political and military leadership survivability.

“Key officials and organizations of each respective country involved in managing and operating such facilities, programs, and activities” should also be identified, says the document, which is somewhat reminiscent of an elaborate war plan.

“Our experts are drafting an appropriate response,” Navy Captain Brook DeWalt, spokesman for the Strategic Command, said in an email to Bloomberg on Monday. While “it’s premature to pass along any details at this point, we can update you further at a later date.”

Although the study was ordered before Donald Trump took office, it appears to coincide with his statement that he would unconditionally support strengthening US strategic arsenals. In an incendiary tweet in December, Trump wrote that Washington “must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.”

Later in the month, Trump stunned arms control experts, reportedly telling Mika Brzezinski, co-host of MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ program: “Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all.”

The remarks came despite Trump’s separate statement that he would consider a rapprochement with Moscow in response for a possible new deal on nuclear arms reduction.

While seemingly opaque, Trump’s comments left many to speculate as to whom his threats of a renewed arms race were directed against. Currently, Russia is the only country that can match the US in terms of nuclear strategic capabilities in both size and quality, with Moscow’s nuclear triad believed to be enough to bring about so-called ‘mutually assured destruction.’

Congressman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said in an email to Bloomberg that the US “must understand how China and Russia intend to fight a war and how their leadership will command and control a potential conflict. This knowledge is pivotal to our ability to deter the threat.”

The US and Russia possess roughly 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons, while most of them are many times more powerful than the American atomic bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. A single nuclear warhead, if detonated on a large city, could result in millions of fatalities, with contamination effects persisting for decades.

Last week, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists adjusted the famous ‘Doomsday Clock,’ which visualizes the perceived distance to a nuclear disaster. The hand was moved 30 seconds closer to midnight, and it now stands just 2.5 minutes away – a time unseen since 1953, when the US and USSR were designing and testing hydrogen bombs.

“Over the course of 2016, the global security landscape darkened as the international community failed to come effectively to grips with humanity’s most pressing existential threats, nuclear weapons and climate change,” the scientists stated.

Infrastructure of nuclear weapons in Europe



http://bmpd.livejournal.com/2506373.html

U.S. has Gained an Insurmountable Nuclear Edge over Russia?


According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

http://thebulletin.org/how-us-nuclear-force-modernization-undermining-strategic-stability-burst-height-compensating-super10578

Lockheed Martin Wins Contract for Trident II Missile Production, Support

Lockheed Martin has been awarded additional funding for production and engineering support of the Trident DII (D-5) submarine launched ballistic nuclear missile, according to the Pentagon.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Lockheed Martin has been awarded additional funding for production and engineering support of the Trident DII (D-5) submarine launched ballistic nuclear missile, the US Department of Defense said in a press release.

"Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., Sunnyvale, California, is being awarded $11,867,147 modification to a previously awarded contract for Trident II (D5) missile production and deployed system support," the release stated on Friday.

The Trident II D5 missile is housed on board OHIO-class and British VANGUARD-class strategic missile submarines, according to published US Navy information. submarines. Trident II has a range of approximately 7,500 miles and can carry up to 14 multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs). It is lighter than previous iterations and, as such, can carry a heavier payloads.

https://sputniknews.com/military/201707221055778156-lockheed-martin-trident-missile/

STRATCOM: No funds for Nuclear Triad- start negotiations with the Russians

“As the #STRATCOM commander, my advice is that we need to have a force that can respond to any threat that is in the world today. And in order to do that, I have to have a triad. The Russians have a very significant triad that is poised against us each and every day, and if I don’t have that, I can’t guarantee that the United States will have the ability to respond, which means I can’t guarantee the security of the country.”

Gen. John E. Hyten, commander, U.S. Strategic Command

Earlier on Wednesday, Smith said that the Pentagon’s plan to recapitalize the three legs of the triad — by buying the Columbia-class submarine, new intercontinental ballistic missiles, and the B-21 bomber — was “way beyond what we can afford.”

https://www.defensenews.com/space/2018/11/15/stratcom-head-on-key-lawmakers-arms-control-agenda-if-you-want-to-save-money-change-the-threat/?fbclid=IwAR23JG-HcvZ0Mjkkpz0kn8vxOlmDG79RWOxnHpRUmy13nRINb3Piwetsazo

Test prototype of an American medium-range ballistic missile

On December 12, 2019, the U.S. Air Force and the Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) of the U.S. Department of Defense conducted the first flight test of a prototype non-nuclear ground-based medium-range ballistic missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base (California). An experimental rocket was launched from a ground test launcher and fell in a given area in the Pacific Ocean, flying more than 500 km.

The US Air Force said that "the data and conclusions from this test will serve as the basis for the Department of Defense to develop its future medium-range missile potential. A joint group of government and industry began work after the United States suspended its obligations under the Intermediate-Range Missile Treaty in February 2019, and launched nine months after the award of the contract. "

On the bmpd side, we recall that in March 2019, after the United States suspended its participation in the INF Treaty, the US Department of Defense announced that it plans to conduct the first test of a promising medium-range ballistic missile in November.

Earlier in 2018, a promising Strategic Fires Missile missile with a range of 500 to 2,250 km was featured in a presentation by the U.S. Army about promising long-range weapons systems. The image of this rocket in the presentation is very similar to the appearance of the rocket tested on December 12, 2019.

Little details have been reported so far regarding the rocket tested on December 12, however, according to American publications, Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, the former Orbit ATK corporation acquired by Northrop Grumman in 2018, acted as a contractor for the development of this rocket. Presumably, the rocket was based on the Orbit ATK Castor IVB solid-fuel accelerator stage, which was used in American ballistic target missiles, which previously criticized the Russian side, which considered these target missiles as prototypes of medium-range missiles that violate the provisions of the INF Treaty. Now Russian criticism looks not far from the truth, although formally Castor IVB is currently listed as discontinued.

Another option is the Orion solid propellant stages manufactured by the Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems (Orbit ATK), used in Pegasus, Taurus and Minotaur launchers and GBI missiles. The Junerop Northrop Grumman catalog of rocket engines from June 2018 as an object for using Orion stages includes, among other things, a medium-range ballistic missile (IRBM) with the first stage Orion 50S XLG (with extended nozzles) and the second stage Orion 50 XLT. In fact, this combination of steps is used in the Taurus Lite launcher and the GBI anti-missile.

Also, presumably, the missile tested on December 12 is equipped with a maneuvering monoblock warhead (MARV), an outwardly similar warhead of the Pershing II missile, eliminated under the INF Treaty.




https://bmpd.livejournal.com/3872846.html

U.S. is Modernizing its Nuclear Capabilities:


https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/us-military-has-deployed-new-nuclear-weapon-that-has-experts-worried-about-war-report-says/ar-BBZwGqg?ocid=SKY2DHP

U.S just released the latest Nuclear Matters Handbook. Here is the link. In case any forum member wants to go through.

https://www.acq.osd.mil/ncbdp/nm/nmhb/index.htm

Odin of Ossetia wrote:U.S. is Modernizing its Nuclear Capabilities:

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/us-military-has-deployed-new-nuclear-weapon-that-has-experts-worried-about-war-report-says/ar-BBZwGqg?ocid=SKY2DHP

The recent introduction of the W76-2 warhead was the result of Pentagon planning a potential first strike scenario against adversaries, especially Iran.

The F-15E is the first to receive the new American nuclear bombs B61-12

The Sandia National Laboratories on June 8, 2020, reported that the Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle was the first U.S. Air Force aircraft to be certified to carry the new B61-12 American Corrected Aircraft Bomb.


U.S. Air Force Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle fighter-bomber with a suspended simulator of the new American B61-12 corrected aircraft nuclear bomb. Nellis, 03/10/2020 (c) Kris Trajano / www.thedrive.com

Certification is reported to have been made after two successful test discharges of simulators of the B61-12 bomb with the F-15E at the Tonop test site in Nevada in March 2020, which completed the integration tests of the B61-12 bomb with the F-15E aircraft. One drop in March was carried out from a low altitude (1000 feet), the other from a large one (25000 feet), in both cases the discharge was carried out at a carrier speed close to sonic, and successful bomb strikes were recorded (35 and 55 seconds after reset, respectively). In total, six discharges from the F-15E were made during the tests.

On the bmpd side, we recall that the B61-12 nuclear bomb is intended to replace the American B61 family nuclear bombs that were now equipped with the US and NATO forces, manufactured in the 1970-1980s - the low-bombing bombs B61-3 and B61-4, which consist of arming tactical aircraft of the United States and NATO, and high-altitude bombing bombs B61-7 and B61-10, consisting of the strategic bombers B-2A and B-52N. As part of the Life Extension Program (LEP), a single new sample of the B61 bomb was created, called Mod 12 (B61-12), which will replace all modifications of the tactical and strategic B61 bombs (as well as the small number of B83 bombs remaining in stocks). Since the production of new nuclear charges has not been carried out in the United States since the late 1990s, the charge of B61-12 will be a modernized charge of available B61 bombs. It is believed that the B61-12 will have a capacity in the region of 50 kilotons.

The B61-12 bomb is a highly accurate corrected one, receiving an inertial-satellite guidance system similar to the JDAM guided bombs. A new tail section with rudders was also installed, which made it possible to abandon the old parachute system, and also made it possible to place the B61-12 bomb in the internal armament compartments of F-35 fighters. The mass of the B61-12 bomb is 375 kg, the length is 3.6 m.

The first B61-12 serial bombs will be manufactured in fiscal year 2022. By this time, along with the F-15E, B-2A strategic bombers, F-16C / D fighters, and then fifth-generation F-35 fighters, as well as certain types of US Allied aircraft, must also be certified for B61-12. NATO. It is reported that the B61-12 bomb was tested by discharges from the B-2A bomber in 2018, but so far this aircraft is not certified as its carrier. According to today's plans, it is planned to produce 400 B61-12 bombs.





https://bmpd.livejournal.com/4053301.html

Contract for the creation of a promising American ballistic missile

On September 8, 2020, Notrhrop Grumman Corporation received a contract from the US Department of Defense worth $ 13.294 billion for the full-scale development (R&D stage - Engineering and Manufacturing Development - EMD) of a promising American ground-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) under the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) program, designed to replace the LGM-30G Minuteman III ICBMs in service with the US Air Force. Image of the launch of a promising American ground-based intercontinental ballistic missile under the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) program (c) Notrhrop Grumman

https://bmpd.livejournal.com/4134683.html

In its fourth scheduled test of 2020, the US Air Force launched an unarmed LGM-30 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) early Thursday morning to verify the half-century-old rocket’s instruments still work. The Pentagon recently signed a deal for Northrop Grumman to build the Minuteman III’s replacement.

As is typical of Minuteman III tests, the solid-fueled three-stage rocket was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the California coast and traveled 4,200 miles to splash down in a test range in Kwajalein Atoll, a massive coral atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the western Pacific Ocean. The test began at 12:27 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time, according to a news release by the base.



https://sputniknews.com/military/202010291080918884-watch-us-air-force-test-fires-50-year-old-minuteman-iii-icbm/

Test drop of the new American aviation nuclear bomb B61-12 by the F-35A fighter



A video of a test release of a simulator of the new American B61-12 corrected aviation nuclear bomb was published by the fifth generation Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II fighter. It is believed that the B61-12 will have a capacity of around 50 kilotons. The B61-12 bomb is an adjustable high-precision bomb , having received an inertial-satellite guidance system, similar to the JDAM guided bombs. A new tail section with rudders was also installed, which made it possible to abandon the old parachute system, and also make it possible to place the B61-12 bomb in the internal armament compartments of F-35 fighters. The mass of the B61-12 bomb is 375 kg, the length is 3.6 m.

https://t.me/ChDambiev/4092

American experts: the United States is secretly taking out nuclear weapons from Europe

Today, 08: 06

In recent years, the United States has significantly reduced its nuclear arsenal stationed in Europe, secretly removing some of the munitions to its territory. This conclusion was made by experts from the Federation of American Scientists. "Businessman".

According to experts, recently the number of American tactical nuclear weapons in Europe, it was reduced from 150 warheads to 100. Moreover, it is said that the removal of nuclear weapons from European territory was carried out in secret, this was not mentioned anywhere.

Most of the nuclear warheads are said to have been removed from Turkey's Incirlik airbase as US-Turkish relations have deteriorated recently. Some time ago, there were rumors that Turkey would finally close the airbase for foreign military contingents.

At the same time, it is possible that part of the US nuclear arsenal, stored at six military bases in five NATO countries (Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey), was temporarily moved to the United States to carry out modernization to the B61-12 level. After the work carried out, the ammunition will be returned to storage sites in Europe.

An example is the American airbase in German Büchel, where the United States carried out the modernization of nuclear bombs without informing anyone about it. In 2020, they simply secretly removed the arsenal to the United States, modernized it and returned it to the storage location as well.

At the same time, experts still do not exclude the reduction of the US nuclear arsenal in Europe on a permanent basis. In their opinion, the Pentagon understands the risks associated with storing nuclear weapons on foreign territory. This is especially true for Turkey.

https://en.topwar.ru/181077-amerikanskie-jeksperty-ssha-tajno-vyvozit-jadernoe-oruzhie-iz-evropy.html

The Trump administration appears to have quietly removed approximately 50 of America’s B61 nuclear gravity bombs from their Europe- and Turkey-based warehouses, leaving about 100 warheads stationed across the two regions, a report by the Congressional Research Service indicates.

The think tank, tasked with informing US lawmakers on a range of policy, says the changes have been alluded to in recently unclassified reports, with the nukes redeployed even though US officials “did not announce any changes to the existing basing of US nuclear weapons in Europe.”

A January report from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on the current status of the US nuclear arsenal appears to confirm that about 100 B61s are now stationed at US bases across five European countries, down from previously reported estimates of 150.

The nukes are said to be stationed in Italy (at the Aviano and Ghedi bases), Germany (Buchel Air Base), Belgium (Kleine Brogel base), the Netherlands (Volkel base), and in Turkey (Incirlik). Researchers attributed the drop in deployed nukes to a “reduction of operational storage capacity at Aviano and Incirlik,” with about 130 B61s now said to be stored at bases in the US and kept ready for operations in Asia or other locations outside Europe.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists also reports that the number of bombs at Turkey’s Incirlik base dropped from 50 to about 20 amid security concerns first raised in the wake of the failed 2016 coup and its aftermath.

https://sputniknews.com/military/202103211082409563-trump-reportedly-cut-down-size-of-us-nuke-arsenal-in-europe-by-a-third/