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The Air Force just successfully tested an $8.1 billion 'nuclear gravity bomb'https://www.businessinsider.in/the-air-force-just-successfully-tested-an-8-1-billion-nuclear-gravity-bomb/during-the-cold-war-the-united-states-built-thousands-of-nuclear-bombs-many-of-them-were-gravity-or-dumb-bombs-that-could-be-dropped-from-a-plane-/slidelist/49825581.cms2021-07-26T12:46:41+05:30

The Air Force just successfully tested an $8.1 billion 'nuclear gravity bomb'

Jul 26, 2021, 12:46 IST

During the Cold War, the United States built thousands of nuclear bombs. Many of them were "gravity" or "dumb" bombs that could be dropped from a plane.

But over the years bombs grow obsolete. Nations also signed non-proliferation agreements that promise to reduce nuclear weapons stockpiles.

So the US military set out to maintain "a credible nuclear deterrent without producing new weapons or conducting new underground nuclear tests."

And it budgeted $8.1 billion to create and test a new bomb design: the B61-12.

The B61-12 will replace a 1-megaton nuclear bomb called the B83 (below). Retiring those weapons will cut the total number of nuclear gravity bombs by 50%. They'll pull 83% of weapons-grade nuclear materials out of the old bombs and use the remainder for new ones.

The new bomb has to work, of course. As part of an impact test in January 2015, Sandia Labs fired a dummy B61-12 bomb from its giant Davis Gun in New Mexico.

The test recalls the 'Upshot Knothole' atomic cannon, which could fire a nuclear shell more than 6 miles away.

The government shot armed nuclear explosives out of the atomic cannon in the 1960s.

But the B61-12 is designed to fly, and fly it did on October 20, 2015 at Tonopah Test Range in Nevada.

The bomb squarely hit its target, as shown in this high-speed camera still. Although it was a dummy bomb — it wasn't armed and didn't explode — the test was a success.

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