Russia Calls US Nuclear Bomb Test 'Provocative' Weeks After Putin Announced Arsenal Expansion

[bananas]

Source: International Business Times

The U.S. military's test earlier this month of a B61-12 nuclear bomb in Nevada was an “openly provocative” attempt to antagonize Moscow, a top Russian official said Monday. Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov condemned the exercise just weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his plan to expand Russia’s own nuclear arsenal.

The U.S. Air Force and National Nuclear Safety Administration used an F-15E fighter-bomber to test-launch a warhead-less bomb July 1. Antonov said it was the latest evidence of the United States’ aim to propagate a fictitious Russian threat in order to bolster its own military. Western officials have repeatedly criticized Russia since early 2014 for its annexation of Crimea and apparent involvement in the Eastern Ukraine conflict.

“The actions of the U.S. side in the current situation are openly provocative, and are contrary to Washington’s stated desire for complete nuclear disarmament,” Antonov said Monday, according to state-owned Sputnik News. “In particularly, the test was carried out using a F-15E fighter-bomber. This leads to believe that the test was carried out in order to examine the possibility of using the B61-12 nuclear bomb with NATO fighter-bombers stationed in Europe.”

<snip>

Last month, Putin said Russia would add more than 40 intercontinental ballistic missiles to its current nuclear stockpile by the end of the year. Days later, the Russian navy confirmed it would conduct several nuclear tests over the same time period. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg condemned Russia’s “nuclear saber-rattling” as “destabilizing” and warned the alliance would take steps to respond.

Read more: http://www.ibtimes.com/russia-calls-us-nuclear-bomb-test-provocative-weeks-after-putin-announced-arsenal-2006104

[jtuck004]

1. Thought this was stupid in 6th grade. Still do. Let's buy books, co-op biz, housing. Not bombs. n/t

[Scootaloo]

2. Wait, are we still testing nuclear bombs?

What, do we need to check in on the laws of physics every now and then?

[bananas]

4. Tested without the warhead, just a flight test. nt

[Scootaloo]

5. Ahhhh.

Well, in the scheme of things, that's better.

I guess.

[bananas]

6. Wind-tunnel tests last year "uncovered a previously uncharacterized physical phenomenon"

http://fas.org/blogs/security/2014/04/b61-12features/

B61-12 Nuclear Bomb Design Features
Apr.16, 2014
By Hans M. Kristensen

Additional design details of the new B61-12 guided standoff nuclear bomb are emerging with new images. The image above shows a full-scale B61-12 model hanging in a wind tunnel at Arnold Air Force Base.

The test “uncovered a previously uncharacterized physical phenomenon,” according to Sandia National Laboratories, that would affect weapons performance.

Apparently a reference to the interaction between weapons spin rocket motors and the new guided tail kit assembly. Existing B61 models do not have the guided tail kit and are less accurate than the B61-12.

The spin rocket motors were previously developed to stabilize the aerodynamic behavior of B61 bombs during descent. Previous wind tunnel tests of those weapons had revealed a so-called “counter torque” effect where plumes from the rocket motors worked against the fin performance, counteracting the torque from the motors and reducing the vehicle spin rate.

Because the B61-12 will be enhanced with a new guided tail kit to improve its accuracy, the wind tunnel test was necessary to determine how the new tail interacts with the spin rocket motors.

The wind tunnel image also shows the new guided tail kit in greater detail than seen before, including the four maneuverable fins that are controlled by an Internal Navigation System. In addition to improving accuracy, the fins also give the B61-12 a limited standoff capability. Current B61 versions do not have Internal Navigation System or standoff capability.

<snip>

[Scootaloo]

7. Well, we have to make sure we can deliver our indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction accurately!

...Sorry, I really have nothing positive to say here.

[cstanleytech]

9. Actually, we do and we should.

After all it would really suck if you meant to hit a military base and it went off course and instead of hitting the base it ended up hitting a city with 3 million living in and around it it vs the base which might have only 200000 or less around it.

[Purveyor]

11. If we detonate just one nuclear weapon, it is fucking over anyway so 'at that point in time,

what difference does it make'.

MAD is what it is and will be regardless of which country attacks first.

[cstanleytech]

12. True but not all payloads are or have to be nuclear and

there are high explosive that can do a pretty fair amount of damage that you might want to still us on a military target but would rather not hit a civilian one so testing on delivery methods is still needed to make sure dont fuck up because there are no take backs if you miss and kill a buncha people on accident.

[jtuck004]

14. Then if they didn't want to be asshats they could have tested a conventional one.

Fuck the ass clown warlords on all sides.

Most especially ours.

[cstanleytech]

15. See post #4. nt

[jtuck004]

18. No, clowns here tested a device capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, in response to the clowns

of a different circus playing with their guns. One might say. (That's what I understood anyway. Irrelevant - there are better things to be doing than stroking their hard missiles on the taxpayer dollar).

They could have tested a conventional one instead to avoid being provocative. They didn't because they don't care how many civilians die in their games.

Here's a thought: Dispense with the testing. Hire some of the ship captains that have run into, say, France, Turkey, the United States. Those people can't miss. Let them shoot the damn gun - - surely they can hit a country. Again.

And then we engage Russia in a massive game of robot wars or something. In an arena. On cable.

You know what's really ironic? As humans we have at the base of our brain a built-in fear of snakes, lizards, bugs, etc., and lighting decision making about what is harmful. That was really handy a few thousand years ago, since snakes might actually eat you.

The threats today are much different but we really haven't evolved much beyond our fear of the dark and the quick decisions which now should be made with more thought. And we still look for snakes where there haven't been any in a hundred years - even while something else is eating us.

We are doing ourselves a serious disservice by letting so many people languish without purpose, kids without food, too many at one end of the spectrum just amassing - we live because we build, and we ain't building. There is no neutral in this type of economy/country.You idle, you die.

I don't think our greatest threats are gonna be taken care of with a bomb. But it does take time and resources away from the important things.

[cstanleytech]

19. Except this was a dummy load so freaking what? If Putin his panties in an uproar so be

it but frankly I could care less what he thinks anymore.

[jtuck004]

21. Well, we did it in response to his, so I am guessing we should check our panties first.

And I highly suspect he is caring less and less what we think these days. I know for damn sure the Chinese sure are behaving like they don't.

While we increasingly invest our future in an army of french fry cooks and bedpan emptiers.

I'm sure he is not even on the list of the top ten things we ought to be working on.

[bananas]

24. The OP is misleading - the B61-12 has been in the news for several years

Here's a couple of posts on DU:

Jul 2012: A Golden Mistake: The B61-12 is the most expensive nuclear warhead in U.S. history
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101637063

Mar 2014: B61-12 Nuclear Bomb Integration On NATO Aircraft To Start In 2015
http://www.democraticunderground.com/11783981

[backscatter712]

20. Yep. Close only counts with horseshoes and hand grenades...

...but not with nuclear weapons.

[Wellstone ruled]

8. Lab testing and

simulated testing,all done at the Mercury,Nevada test site west of Vegas. BTW,there have been Hot Waste Disposal Issues at this site recently. Couple of fellows took a hit with some spilled Nuke Waste. Local press wiped the story within a hour of the post.

[Agnosticsherbet]

3. Putin is a laughter riot

A giggling, murdering megalomaniac, but a laugh riot.

[BlueEye]

10. Some interesting reading about the new B61 from the Federation of American Scientists here:

http://fas.org/programs/ssp/nukes/publications1/Brief2014_PREPCOM2.pdf

They basically conclude that the technological capabilities of this bomb are most "useful" in a hypothetical strike on Iran, and that the European deployment is a pointless affair that will unnecessarily ruffle Putin's jimmies and compel the Russians to advance their own tactical nuclear capabilities.

[Fred Sanders]

13. Exploding nuclear bombs by America - good. Anyone else, bad, very bad!

[cstanleytech]

16. And again see post #4. nt

[Fred Sanders]

17. Modified: having nuclear weapons to test, good, any other country, very bad!?

[Igel]

22. Great catch. One that all but proves exactly the opposite of what Putin says.

Because if you do a search for this test, you will find a few mentions of it in the media.

A few hits in Britain and other countries. The earliest I can find in a quick search is from 7 JUL 15, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3154136/Air-force-drops-controversial-bomb-test-designed-update-nuclear-arsenal.html . Yes, that's right. The Daily Mail, the British tabloid that DU loves to hate is the source of the story. (Sigh.)

But this story explodes in Russian sources dated on 10 JUL 15. Russia winds up a day behind, but then their editorial staff takes a while to make sure that all's okay. Since it was trivial news--notice that they picked it up over a week after the test, which, no doubt, had been formally announced earlier--rather than just run with it they had to be told that it wasn't really trivial news but earthshaking, and be given the proper quotes to spin it. Because the story isn't the test; the story is the spin.

Now, "Antonov said it was the latest evidence of the United States’ aim to propagate a fictitious Russian threat in order to bolster its own military."

How is it propagating anything to have a test which, if it was announced, was utterly ignored by the US media? Then, having ignored the announcement, the results were ignored. Yawn. No presidential announcement. No press conference. No splashy footage on state run, er, CNN or Fox. Nothing.

If it's evidence of the US' aim to propagate a fictitious Russian threat, it's a particularly escapable bit of propaganda.

Compare this with military news in Russia. Not only is this particular bit of news splashed all over the place, but a similar test in Russia would have been front page news and on all the news networks. A press conference with military leaders would have been held, saying that it's in response to the obvious threat by the US/NATO/Europe/Ukrainian Jewish gay Nazis. I mean, deployments are important news, annual drills are news, inspections are news, new weapons announcements/development milestones/tests/deployment/sales are news. Random stories saying just how swell the Russian military is make the news, along with recruitment figures and stories about the extreme state of military preparedness. I mean, these aren't news. We'd think of them as advertisements. But they sometimes lead newscasts. "Here's a breaking update, the Russian military is still prepared for any imminent attack by Elbonia." It's like the news that Elvis is still dead.

Yet one side, Russia, is pacifist in spite of the persistent high-profile reporting of all things military and jingoist; the other side is militaristic, and then apparently mounts a huge propaganda campaign which, it seems, only Russian state media pick up and which is then echoed in non-state media but which passes remarkably unnoticed in the US itself.

Roshizm. (Merger of Rossiya + fashizm, Russia + fascism). One sign of a fascist state isn't just ethnic nationalism, but militarism. Slava Rossiiskoi armii!

[Peace Patriot]

23. The arms merchants have both us and the Russian people in a head lock,

and, while they beat the shit out of us both, they steal all our money.

Low level mafia thugs, that's who they are, but their take is billions and billions of dollars and rubles. And their threat: killing everybody!

[Nitram]

25. Arms merchants don't manufacture or sell nuclear weapons. Non sequitur.