LAHORE – The US Air Force sent out a B-2 stealth bomber to deploy anupgraded B61-12 nuclear bomb recently in an effort to review the weapon’saccuracy and ability to carry out its various attack options, Russiangovernment-owned news agency *Sputnik International *reported.
According to Russian media, Warrior Maven said that the latest upgradesenable the nuclear bomb to be able to carry out earth-penetrating attacks,low-yield strikes, high-yield attacks, above surface detonation andbunker-buster options, giving the Air Force a five-in-one kind of deal.
“The main advantage of the B61-12 is that it packs all the gravity bombcapabilities against all the targeting scenarios into one bomb,” HansKristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project, told the website.“That spans from very low-yield tactical ‘clean’ use with low fallout tomore dirty attacks against underground targets.”
“A nuclear weapon that detonates after penetrating the earth moreefficiently transmits its explosive energy to the ground, thus is moreeffective at destroying deeply buried targets for a given nuclear yield. Adetonation above ground, in contrast, results in a larger fraction of theexplosive energy bouncing off the surface,” Kristensen added, noting thatthe B-2 bomber presently carries nuclear bombs of the models B61-7, B61-11and B83-1.
However, the B61-12 nuclear bomb won’t be the only piece of militaryequipment to receive a facelift. The B-2 bomber, first introduced in the1980s, is expected to see upgrades to its Defensive Management System,hardware used to help the bomber recognize and deter enemy air defenses,Warrior Maven reported. The US Air Force operates an estimated 20 B-2bombers. Its next-generation competition is the B-21 Raider.
The latest test, conducted at an undisclosed area, follows news in lateJune that the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear SecurityAdministration (NNSA) and the US Air Force tested two B61-12 bombs on June9 at the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada.
In a statement released on June 29, Brig. Gen. Michael Lutton, NNSA’sprincipal assistant deputy administrator for military application,indicated that the June tests were conducted in order to see whether “theB61-12 design meets system requirements and illustrate the continuedprogress of the B61-12 life extension program to meet national securityrequirements.”
The life extension program is part of a joint effort to preserve thecritical elements of the US nuclear triad, a three-pronged militarystructure consisting of land-launched missiles, nuclear missile-armedsubmarines and strategic aircraft with nuclear bombs and missiles.