Dummy nuke dropped in test northwest of Vegas

In order to get a longer-lasting bang out of the nation’s nuclear bomb bucks, government scientists conducted a life-extension test of the aging B61 nuclear bomb using a fighter jet from Nellis Air Force Base to drop a dummy version of it July 1 at the Tonopah Test Range.

The successful drop of the gravity bomb by an F-15E Strike Eagle from the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron was lauded as “a major milestone” in the National Nuclear Security Administration’s effort to keep the modernized, B61-12 version viable for nuclear deterrence, said Don Cook, the agency’s deputy administrator for defense programs.

“Achieving the first complete B61-12 flight test provides clear evidence of the nation’s continued commitment to maintain the B61 and provides assurance to our allies,” Cook said in a news release Wednesday.

A statement from the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., states the B61-12 is designed to replace four variants of the B61 that can be delivered by U.S. aircraft. The B61 is a 12-foot-long thermonuclear bomb that weighs about 700 pounds.

Hardware for the B61-12 was designed by Sandia National and Los Alamos National Laboratories in New Mexico and mated with an Air Force tail-kit assembly.

“This test demonstrated successful performance in realistic flight environments followed by an effective release of a development test unit from a USAF F-15E from Nellis” Air Force Base, according to the news release from the National Nuclear Security Administration, a branch of the Department of Energy.

The test was conducted at the Tonopah Test Range, part of the Nevada Test and Training Range complex, about 130 miles northwest of Las Vegas. That is where engineers from Sandia National Laboratories conducted helicopter drop tests of inert B61 assemblies in August 2013.

In the 2013 tests, a new radar system, which previously had only been tested in a laboratory, was installed in a gravity-bomb configuration to assess how it performed when dropped from a helicopter.

Maj. Gen. Garrett Harencak told a House Armed Services subcommittee in April that the joint effort to extend the life of the B61-12 is on schedule to deliver the first production unit in 2020. The goal is to have a dual capable aircraft bomb with both conventional and nuclear options ready for the F-35 joint strike fighter by 2024.

Contact Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308. Find him on Twitter: @KeithRogers2.