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The US has not functionally tested a nuclear weapon in 20 or so years. Elements of the weapons have been redesigned, modified and upgraded but all testing has been through modeling and computer simulation.

Now, remember two events:

Early WWII torpedoes. The navy tested the systems individually but rarely the integrated torpedo. The sub commanders said they didn't work. The navy insisted all the sub commanders were wrong.

Turns out they had a weak firing pin that bent causing misfires. Also it was suspected they ran deep and their success rate improved when set to shallower depths until the navy told sub commanders not to do that.

The second lesson is the global warming model. It is said that 97% of globull warming scientist swear by these models but the models continue to fail the reality test. The solution is to belittle the people that point this out rather than scrap the model and continue open ended research.

Now, back to nukes. The same bureaucratic types are in charge....