B61 "bunker buster" bombs

At the peak of his powerlifting career, he could bench press eight times the average infantry rifleman's load (405 pounds x 2), front squat an underweight male grizzly bear (495 pounds), and deadlift the equivalent of the B61 nuclear bomb (700 lbs) that was once the backbone of the U.S. stockpile.

The solution, they argued, was to deploy small-yield weapons, then known as “bunker busters,” that would free the United States from the Cold War shackles of self-deterrence. ... With a “tunable” yield, the B61-12 is a guided bomb deployed on aircraft and can be dialed down to 300 tons of explosive power.

Saudi Arabia, going all the way back to the early 1970s, has been the major financier of the Pakistani nuclear bomb project initiated by former prime ... as long practiced by NATO, under which over 200 B61 US nuclear warheads are stationed in five NATO countries (including at Incirlik airbase in Turkey).

The plan is to consolidate all the B61 variants versions into the new B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb, to be deliverable by both tactical and nuclear aircraft. The weapons could be deployed as early as 2020. Overall, the total inventory of nuclear gravity bombs will be reduced by nearly 50 percent by the ...

The United States stores as many as 50 B61 gravity bombs in Turkey, part of the estimated 150 American nuclear weapons spread throughout Europe, the magazine noted. Officials from NATO have previously told Turkey that the Russian system cannot be integrated into any NATO network. Pavel said it would be “hard to ...

DOE is also modifying and extending the life of the B61 bomb carried on B-2 bombers and fighter aircraft and the W80 warhead for cruise missiles. The Obama Administration completed a review of the size and structure of the U.S. nuclear force, and a review of U.S. nuclear employment policy, in June 2013 ...

The so-called “more usable” tactical nuclear weapons (B61-11, B61-12) with an explosive capacity between one third and twelve times a Hiroshima bomb are heralded (by scientific opinion on contract to the Pentagon) as “peace-making” bombs, “harmless to the surrounding civilian population because the ...

NATO's arsenal of tactical nuclear weapons consists entirely of air-delivered B61 gravity bombs. Currently, in addition to U.S. forward-based fighters, five NATO countries — Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey — host tactical nuclear weapons, and all of these but Turkey have dual-capable ...

nuclear weapons b61 11 bunker buster b2 bomber stealth aircraft reuters RTXHYF7 A B-2 bomber ... weapons systems. The report, called "Don't Bank on the Bomb," includes data from major retirement funds, pensions, and other publicly disclosed investments from January 2014 through October 2017.

A third of the B61 bombs in Europe under joint US-Nato control are believed to be stored at Turkey's Incirlik Airbase – which was locked down and had its ... a US president would initiate nuclear use for the first time in more than 70 years with a Nato DCA flown by non-US pilots delivering a US B61 bomb.”.

A key nuclear modernization program, the B61-12 tail kit assembly life-extension program, requires about $52 million more for production in fiscal year 2019 than anticipated, according to the Air Force's latest budget request. The Air Force plans to ramp up from 30 units in FY-18 to buy 250 units in FY-19 ...

“It is hard to envision the circumstances under which a US president would initiate nuclear use for the first time in more than 70 years with a Nato [dual-capable aircraft] flown by non-US pilots delivering a US B61 bomb,” said the NTI report, titled Building a Safe, Secure and Credible Nato Nuclear Posture.

At that point, it will begin replacing all of the remaining variants of the weapon, which have kiloton-class yields, still in service – the B61-3, -4, -7, and -11 – as well as separate stocks of B83 Mod 1 bombs, which have a much larger megaton-class yield. B83-1 is an improved version of that bomb, which first ...