B61 Life Extension Program testing at the Tonopah Test Range

Sandia statement regarding testing at the TTR

Statement of Dr. Paul J. Hommert
President and Director
Sandia National Laboratories
Committee on Armed Services
Subcommittee on Strategic Forces
United States Senate
May 7, 2013


I have brought with me today actual hardware of the joint radar module designed at Sandia and built by NNSA’s Kansas City Plant as it will give you a sense of how far along we are in the design and development of this life extension. Interestingly, this module replaces the vacuum tube radars in a number of our legacy B61 radars. Through the use of advanced technology, this radar achieves a tenfold reduction in volume, greater capability, and resistance to countermeasures. As an example of one of the numerous components for the B61 LEP that are moving toward final design maturity, this particular component also illustrates our joint radar module concept. Similar hardware will undergo flight testing at the Tonopah Test Range for the B61 LEP and will be flown on a Navy Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile test for the W88 Alt 370 program to support our design and qualification process.

More info on the B61

Two interesting things here. One, it is going to be flown at the TTR. Hey, it is always interesting to know what they are doing there. Two, it is the B61 "radar" that is being modernized. Now the B61 is not a guided bomb, so I'm not really sure what they are tweaking. But it is clear that since the NNSA is handling the project, the radar is part of the bomb and not something else. My guess is it has a radar altimeter.

This is the only reference I found on the B61 radar:
The Nukes of Hazard on the B61 LEP

If you read the whole Sandia statement, you can learn how much money they are saving the US tax payer. ;-)

And for you movie fans, John Travolta stole the bigger B83, not the puny B61, in "Broken Arrow." And yes, he took money from the tobacco companies to smoke in that movie. Then again, the movie featured guns from 10 manufacturers, probably "product placement"!

If you go to the Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas, you can watch a number of videos of real life broken arrow events. The US has dropped a few nukes by accident, and IIRC there is a missing nuke in the sea.

Dont forget the bone-headed missileers at Minot who got de-certified for being bone-heads this year. I believe it was 17 or 18 officers (who get to wear the blue flight suits btw ) who lost there job as the ones with their fingers on the button in very remote locations, three stories underground in huge vaults! Oh yeah, not to mention, "hey lets fly a b-52 from minot to barksdale with live nuclear tipped warheads on board for fun!" story. God, were turning into Russia. They need to put trackers on those things, not radars!!