Nuclear detonators sent to Taiwan were from 1962
Here's a gem from William Gurstelle's Notes from the Technology Underground blog. After newspapers reported that the U.S. military accidentally sent four nuclear-missile detonators to Taiwan in 2006 without until just now realizing it, Gurstelle looked into the history of the Mark 12 missile and found out it was retired in 1962.
The triggers were for Mark -12 nuclear weapons. The Mark 12, nicknamed "Brock" by those who have pet names for atomic bombs, hasn't been part of the nuclear arsenal since 1962. These things have been outdated for 46 years. I think (this is no joke) that a Mark-12 trigger uses vacuum tubes.LinkSo, my question is, why are we keeping so much junk in our nuclear attics? Even my mom finally cleared out her basement (throwing away my collection of vintage Archie comics, but that's another issue.)
No doubt there are still a thousand crates of horse liniment for the cavalry or a million sticks of slowmatch for flintlock rifles piled next to the Mark-12 triggers as well.
the latest
latest episodes
Quick, get the TSA on this.
In amongst the liniment and slowmatch, there's a wooden crate containing the Ark of the Covenant.
I remember from some war porn documentary that the Bofors 40mm gun they still use on AC-130s in Iraq have so much surplus ammo from WWII that they still shoot 60+ year old rounds to this day.
So these are Bay of Pigs memorabilia. eBay???
I think that whole "attic-cleaning" bit is tied into the argument of what to do with the aging nuclear stockpile - modernize or abolish. Some people don't want defective nukes, some people don't want any nukes at all, and there really hasn't been a good incentive to do anything about it, especially since most change regarding nukes gets peoples attention and brings scrutiny of how legal the action is under existing treaties. Given that, letting the weapon sit with decades old technology seems to be the easy option, and I'm pretty happy that we haven't really seen the need to change this.
The probably keep these in the same warehouse where they keep the Ark of the Covenant. Good thing we didn't mail them that!
in all seriousness there are three good reasons to keep these around:
1, in the event of an actual nuclear war these are more likely to survive an EMP.
2, it costs less to warehouse these than to properly destroy them when you include all the paper work involved.
3, its always nice to have the old technology around in the event that the new stuff proves unreliable. for those keeping track, while both current warheads and missiles have been extensively tested individually, no one has actually tested the set together.
Being picky, slowmatch was used in matchlock rifles. Flints in flintlock rifles.
We'll need these when the aliens come and disable our ICs.
The parts sent were actually from the Mark-12 re-entry vehicle, which carries the W-62 nuclear warhead, the original warhead mounted on the Minuteman III ICBM. These warheads are in the process of being retired right now, but there are still some on active service out in the missile silos.
The fun part will come in sixty days when the inventory of all US nuclear assets is due to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Anybody want to start a pool on the number missing?
I'm surprised no-one has commented on the pretty blatant message this sends to China.
Much like accidentally playing the Taiwan national anthem when Hu-Jin Tao visited the U.S. and allowing a Falun Gong heckler into the media stands, these things are the stuff of Diplomatic posturing, while maintaining plausible deniability.
I'm still wondering what the message was with the six thermonuclear warhead cruise missles that they "mislaid"
I think Battlestar Galactica has taught us that it's always a good idea to keep some old-tech around, just in case the robots come to kill us. And they will. (Thank you Old Glory!)
60 year old ordinance can't possibly be safe to fire can it?
depends
@12 PESTERJOHN
Never one to let the facts get in the way of a good story huh?
1. Grenada played the Taiwanese national anthem, not the US. Do you really believe that Grenada really is any position to rattle China's cage? Or are you exerting that Grenada is a puppet state of the US since they still owe the Gipper and/or for the reliance on Americans attending Club Med School?
2. Since when does the US government screen people for political views when attending a public event? (Don't even begin to bring up GWB's political rallies, since these are put on by the Republican party, not the federal government.)
The most powerful weapon ever made was made not long before this. The basic designs were perfected so long ago that age doesn't matter. A 1000 year old knife will still kill you!
Sideshow Bob went for the whole "retro" theme.
We should hang onto all of that old stuff - once we go past peak oil and start using these thermonuclear bombs in anger - the flint-locks, swords, slings, bows & arrows, the horse linament and pointy sticks are all are going to come in handy for our grandchildren.
"Nuclear detonators sent to Taiwan were from 1962"
I not nearly concerned about the nuclear detonators as I am about the alleged use of time travel to obtain them. This Bush administration will stop at NOTHING to subvert those that it disagrees with..
What next? Shipping Dick Clark from 1958 to Venezuela perhaps ! ?
What kind of tubes were they? Vacum tubes are getting harder to come by these days.
they leak too
Those would be klystrons, used to distribute a very narrow high-voltage high-amp pulse to all the explosive detonators and possibly other components of the bomb simultaneously. Coordinating the explosive lenses is supposed to be one of the trickier parts of getting a plutonium bomb to go bang rather than blow itself to pieces.
Others have commented on this in detail, I'll only add that just because it's old, is not in first- or second-line use, doesn't make it any less effective for its intended purpose. Plenty of nations and groups would like to know how to accurately detonate a nuclear explosive, as one integral part of the overall puzzle.
Also, given that it's taken over a year for this story to come to the public, I'd say there's a fair chance that several reverse-engineered clone models are now an option for Taiwanese business interests.
OK, everybody repeat after me:
These were not parts from a Mark-12 nuclear bomb.
They were parts from a Mk-12 re-entry vehicle, the cone-shaped body that houses a W-62 nuclear warhead -- obsolete, yes -- but a weapon that is still in service, sitting on top of intercontinental ballistic missiles with launch crews at the ready 24 hours a day to fire them.
I loved the earlier comment about the Ark of the Covenant, but this is not your grand-dad's nuclear bomb. No vacuum tubes. No steampunk.
At any given moment more than 100 of these things are about a 40-minute flight away from detonating over Moscow, Beijing, Taipei (if they decide to ship them the fast way), or wherever...
1960s nukes = steampunk? I need to write that story...
@17 Coaxial
http://www.stratfor.com/geopolitics_china
@27 -
The W-62 is actually a 1970s production run. 1970-76.
Steampunk is somewhat appropriate for the field. It's taken until this year for anyone to publically post accurate diagrams on 1950s two-point air-gap lens systems for nuke warheads. The 1960s designs (70s deployed warheads and bombs), folded path inert wave shaper lens systems, still aren't much being publically discussed...
There are still people who gripe about Fat Man and Little Boy diagrams being public.
is this buildable?
http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Library/Brown/B28bomb.gif