Posted on 04/03/2023 10:50:02 AM PDT by McGruff
One of the US nuclear bombs stored at a Dutch air base may have been damaged in a recent accident, according to a report published on Monday, which comes at a time when a new generation of the weapons are due to arrive on the continent.
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) discovered a photograph of a B61 bomb being inspected for damage by US soldiers, including two from an explosive ordnance disposal unit, and a civilian. The rear of the bomb appears to have been twisted by an impact and one of the tail fins is missing. There is pink sticky tape covering an apparent hole.
A FAS report on Monday said the picture was included in a 2022 presentation for student job applicants by Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, one of the country’s nuclear weapons facilities, and it geolocated the image to the Volkel air force base in the Netherlands, one of six bases in five European countries where a total of 100 B61 nuclear gravity bombs are currently stored as part of a nuclear-sharing agreement with the US.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
The guy on the left says “What does that loud ticking mean”?
Well yeah. I don’t get this at all. At all.
We had a sailor who was convicted and imprisoned for taking pictures of the inside of his sub. Most of us who followed this thought he was dumb for doing so, but it is pretty clear there was nothing nefarious about it.
He just wanted to impress his non-military friends. But still you had to shake your head with what this guy did.
Then, you see this image?
Odd. Things have changed.
Nowadays, “bent spear” refers to preferred military personnel up for promotion...
I had to look it up. The B-61 could be dialed in from 0.5 kilotons up to something like 320 kT.
The bombs dropped on Japan were 15 and 25 kT.
If you want to read an AWESOME and entertaining book, read "Atomic Accidents: A History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters; From the Ozark Mountains to Fukushima" by James Mahaffey.
I am trained in the handling and use of radiation and isotopes, and they have a whole chapter on military accidents which are, in the way he wrote it, stunningly funny. One of the incidents he talks about is The Mars Bluff Incident
The guy, in the bomb bay of a B-47 Stratojet trying to get the bomb release safety pin to engage while draped over the bomb (and while wearing no parachute) slipped and grabbed...of all things...the emergency bomb release handle. The bomb fell onto, and through the bomb bay doors with him on top of it, for all the world, looking like he was going to do a Slim Pickens routine before he managed to wildly flail and catch onto something as he was falling out!
When they realized what they had done, the pilot suggested they had enough fuel onboard to fly to Brazil...:)
Given what I used to do for a living, this was one of the most wildly entertaining books to read, on a serious subject. And extremely entertaining, too.
Already back at pantex and repaired .......
Pink duct tape, the savior of damaged nuclear bombs. Available at a Home Depot near you!
FAS, once led by Jeremy Stone, the son of admitted Soviet paid propagandist, I. F. Izzy Stone.
Still on the Left.
...something that pink, sticky tape can repair??
These are BOMBS - not rockets.
That PST seems to have triggered a LOT of us in this thread!
http://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cg0IYx2UcAAqW3I.jpg
Good, old grey, sticky tape and clear, slippery liquid.
Man can repair his world!
Also, training weapons/ordinance had blue markings on them.
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