B-2's Drop 2 B-61 Nuclear Bombs in Nevada Test

[tomahawk6]

The B-61's lacked nuclear warheads.Not sure why DOD decided to release this info unless they wanted to give North Korea a wake up call.A message like this to the Russians is plain dumb.Dropping nukes prior to the election would insure that the environmentalists wouldnt be voting for the democrats.

http://www.defenseone.com/business/2016/10/us-air-force-just-dropped-two-fake-nukes/132180/

The tests in the Nevada desert come as tensions rise with Russia and the Pentagon seeks to replace its aging nuclear arsenal.

A pair of U.S. Air Force B-2 bombers dropped two 700-pound faux nuclear bombs in the middle of the Nevada desert within the past few days. Now the Pentagon wants to tell you about it.

Conducted “earlier this month,” according to an Oct. 6 press release, the test involved two dummy variants of the B61, a nuclear bomb that has been in the U.S. arsenal since the 1960s. One was an “earth penetrator” made to strike underground targets, the other a tactical version of the B61. Neither carried an actual warhead.

 

[MilEME09]

The B-61 recently went through an upgrade to the B-61-12, including having a more accurate guidance system, it has unexpectedly proven to be useful as a nuclear earth penetrator. With it's new variable yield settings some within the pentagon have apparently been floating the idea of limited nuclear warfare, by using tactical weapons like the B-61-12 at a low yield setting to strike hardened targets like say bunkers of China's Strategic rocket force.

 

[Kirkhill]

https://www.frstrategie.org/publications/notes/russia-s-evolving-nuclear-doctrine-and-its-implications-2016-01

The Central Role of Nuclear Weapons

Accordingly, Russia has continued to emphasize the central role of its nuclear forces in its strategic and security posture . In addition to seeing its nuclear arsenal as an important contributor to its diminished international prestige, it views these weapons in practical military terms as providing a way to compensate for its conventional weakness vis-à-vis NATO (and possibly China) and as a crucial method in particular for deterring American exploitation of its own strategic capabilities.

Russia’s Interest in and Plans for Decisive Limited Nuclear Use

Less well understood but possibly of greater relevance, however, is Russia’s interest in and development of capabilities for more limited nuclear use. Moscow is aware of its only partial success in fielding a modern conventional military and of that force’s imperfect ability to challenge the forces of the United States and NATO in a broader conflict as well as of the relatively narrow relevance of its strategic nuclear forces in situations short of the apocalyptic. This leaves a significant gap in Russia’s defense posture: left alone, Russia’s conventional forces could be decisively overcome by NATO forces in a plausible conflict over, for instance, the Baltics or other countries in Eastern Europe. Such a scenario would likely fall considerably short of a situation in which Moscow would see the utility in initiating a general nuclear strike against NATO, a strike that would essentially inevitably result in a comparable massive Western response. Russia could therefore find itself exposed to Western coercion if this vulnerability were left unaddressed .

To deal with this problem, Russia has for a number of years seen the value of seeking to extend credible nuclear deterrence down the ladder of escalation to scenarios below the extreme in order to deter the West from seeking to exploit this potential conventional vulnerability as leverage.

http://thebulletin.org/why-russia-calls-limited-nuclear-strike-de-escalation

13 MARCH 2014
Why Russia calls a limited nuclear strike "de-escalation"

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1907902/russia-holds-massive-nuclear-war-exercise-involving-40million-people-as-military-tensions-rise-with-us/

Russia holds ... nuclear war exercise involving 40MILLION people...

BY SAM WEBB  4th October 2016, 11:56 am

RUSSIA is holding a ... evacuation drill for more than 40million people ....

The times, they are a'changin'.

 

[MarkOttawa]

Earlier:

NORAD and Russian Cruise Nukes: “de-escalation”?
https://cgai3ds.wordpress.com/2015/01/22/mark-collins-norad-and-russian-cruise-nukes-de-escalation/

NORAD and Russian Cruise Nukes: “de-escalation”? Part 2
https://cgai3ds.wordpress.com/2016/06/30/mark-collins-norad-and-russian-cruise-nukes-de-escalation-part-2/

Mark
Ottawa

 

[Kirkhill]

:cheers:

 

[MarkOttawa]

A Moose just down the hatch.

Mark
Otttawa