B52 over America with 6 Nuclear War heads ** a Mistake **
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The weapons have been called INERT. If they were warshot complete with warhead they were not inert. Safe maybe but not inert.
An inert weapon is one that will not explode and is effectively your typical lump of concrete. A 1000lb bomb with an inert (concrete) filling is an Inert Bomb.
A nuclear weapon with its high explosive trigger and a nuclear core is a LIVE weapon.
Now if the weapon is accidentally released, as in a crash, or jettisoned deliberately it is said to be single point safe. This means that it might go bang but the worst that will happen is an HE detonation (unlucky if you are very close - or maybe not
) and a scattering of radioactive material (unlucky if you are nearby or downwind. It may also burn which creates further hazards. Inert it is not.
Why load live? Good question.
The Blue Steel was a live missile and fuelled with HTTP but for training a practice warhead could be loaded. Where there was force generation there would have been insufficient training rounds so real warheads would be used. The same could be true in this case.
The fitment of live warheads to the missiles, within the armament storeage area may have been a routine event to prove weapon/missile compatibility. The Charlie Uniform factor was the release of these armed missiles together with their unarmed buddies.
Now the spooky bit.
Bomber crews routinely practice weapons release procedures in flight. The weapons switching is monitored with a response simulator that will behave exactly like the real thing. The crew, inflight, will have no way of knowning that the simulated responses are from a live weapon.
Then they might have gone through an entire launch sequence down to firing the missile. The training round would not however release and fire as it was a training round. Were these armed warshot similarly safed?
I don't know enough about the US systems but once the Charlie Uniform factor starts to operate you never know what might happen.
An inert weapon is one that will not explode and is effectively your typical lump of concrete. A 1000lb bomb with an inert (concrete) filling is an Inert Bomb.
A nuclear weapon with its high explosive trigger and a nuclear core is a LIVE weapon.
Now if the weapon is accidentally released, as in a crash, or jettisoned deliberately it is said to be single point safe. This means that it might go bang but the worst that will happen is an HE detonation (unlucky if you are very close - or maybe not
) and a scattering of radioactive material (unlucky if you are nearby or downwind. It may also burn which creates further hazards. Inert it is not.Why load live? Good question.
The Blue Steel was a live missile and fuelled with HTTP but for training a practice warhead could be loaded. Where there was force generation there would have been insufficient training rounds so real warheads would be used. The same could be true in this case.
The fitment of live warheads to the missiles, within the armament storeage area may have been a routine event to prove weapon/missile compatibility. The Charlie Uniform factor was the release of these armed missiles together with their unarmed buddies.
Now the spooky bit.
Bomber crews routinely practice weapons release procedures in flight. The weapons switching is monitored with a response simulator that will behave exactly like the real thing. The crew, inflight, will have no way of knowning that the simulated responses are from a live weapon.
Then they might have gone through an entire launch sequence down to firing the missile. The training round would not however release and fire as it was a training round. Were these armed warshot similarly safed?
I don't know enough about the US systems but once the Charlie Uniform factor starts to operate you never know what might happen.
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Safeware,
Any truth to the story that when said JEngO was marched into the AOC's office and had the question "Are you Flt Lt F***nuckle, service number 1234567C" barked at him he had the immense satisfaction of replying "NO SIR!". I can only guess the AOC's response but the upshot was they'd got his service number wrong.
Then again, never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
Any truth to the story that when said JEngO was marched into the AOC's office and had the question "Are you Flt Lt F***nuckle, service number 1234567C" barked at him he had the immense satisfaction of replying "NO SIR!". I can only guess the AOC's response but the upshot was they'd got his service number wrong.
Then again, never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
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Imagine......
"Hey Bubba, where'ja say your ma-in-law lived...??"
"Well, hold the practice launch Rusty, the coords are on my GPS cell-fone.... yep, try these for fun......"
"Hee hee, one of these real babies would sort out her broomstick, OK, lets run that practice launch checklist.......!
"Oh sheeeeeeit!!!!!"
"Hey Bubba, where'ja say your ma-in-law lived...??"
"Well, hold the practice launch Rusty, the coords are on my GPS cell-fone.... yep, try these for fun......"
"Hee hee, one of these real babies would sort out her broomstick, OK, lets run that practice launch checklist.......!
"Oh sheeeeeeit!!!!!"
Oh, wait.............................................
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Tigs: The guys there in the dump had lets say a casual approach to something they did day in day out.
Clever stuff.
The US Navy also seem to have a lax culture with nuclear equipment.
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/10/22...uct/index.html
A Chernobyl / Five Mile Island at sea waiting to happen?
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/10/22...uct/index.html
A Chernobyl / Five Mile Island at sea waiting to happen?
I note from the US report that the 'Instructor BN' was held to blame for not properly confirming the pylon stores.
Two things:
1. Surely 'real' nuclear weapons have an appropriate 'filling band'* in addition to the yellow HE mark. How did he not notice that?
2. More importantly, why did he check it on his own? What happened to the 2-man principle.
When 'accepting' even a dummy 'shape', we always treated it as though it was real. The 'shape' markings would be physically checked to confirm that it did NOT contain any nasty nuclear material. I cannot believe that the US doesn't have similar procedures - but if a culture of paying lip service to them has developed, then heads do indeed need to roll.
* The 'Pig and Tape' at Decci must have been the only classified scruff's pub in the world - for poking out of the wall was a dummy 28lb practice bomb painted with nuclear filling markings.....
Two things:
1. Surely 'real' nuclear weapons have an appropriate 'filling band'* in addition to the yellow HE mark. How did he not notice that?
2. More importantly, why did he check it on his own? What happened to the 2-man principle.
When 'accepting' even a dummy 'shape', we always treated it as though it was real. The 'shape' markings would be physically checked to confirm that it did NOT contain any nasty nuclear material. I cannot believe that the US doesn't have similar procedures - but if a culture of paying lip service to them has developed, then heads do indeed need to roll.
* The 'Pig and Tape' at Decci must have been the only classified scruff's pub in the world - for poking out of the wall was a dummy 28lb practice bomb painted with nuclear filling markings.....
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Definitely a culture of indifference at this base
And it's not germaine to the event, but 'he' was a she. And she was but one who didn't do the job correctly and catch this before it became such a goatrope.
But they are not indifferent right now.................
As BEagle says, surely a real nuke is immediately recognisable as per the image below of what I assume is a real, as apposed to inert, WE177 (as declared by the red (radioactive) / yellow (HE) bands - this is according to info on www.avrovulcan.org.uk where I found / linked to this image).
I assume the advantages of a nuke being immediately recognisable still greatly outweigh the downside that clear markings draw attention to the fact its a real nuke (if you follow my drift).
INERT marking here looks quite obvious.....
..though I assume it was one of these on the B52 in question (canister is the W80 being loaded) and it appears to have no markings......
I assume the advantages of a nuke being immediately recognisable still greatly outweigh the downside that clear markings draw attention to the fact its a real nuke (if you follow my drift).
INERT marking here looks quite obvious.....
..though I assume it was one of these on the B52 in question (canister is the W80 being loaded) and it appears to have no markings......
Last edited by JFZ90; 23rd Oct 2007 at 20:28.
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heard tell of a disgruntled liney managing to paint a CND mark on a live WE177 
, possibly 617 ?
, possibly 617 ?
A CND symbol or possibly an 'aceed smiley' (popular at the time) appeared over the weekend in one of the HAS's in the 80's. I do not believe anyone would have got close enough to a weapon (live or not) given the rules governing their movement. The number of people checking and double checking, combined with the need to get them in and out of sites at appropriate times would preclude such an event.
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There was a spate of chinagraph graffiti at Waddington in the late 60s with the phantom's work appearing inside most unusual places - inside the rim of an angle poise light, inside the weapons panel of the said weapon, in fact inside just about anything that should not have had anything inside it.
The target for this campaign took it stoically for a while and them protested, very mildly, and eventually the whole thing fizzled out.
I think there had been the odd complaint back from industry but nothing was ever made official.
It was funny at first but soon lost its humour. OTOH the Bas Heath campaign on 201 was something else again.
The target for this campaign took it stoically for a while and them protested, very mildly, and eventually the whole thing fizzled out.
I think there had been the odd complaint back from industry but nothing was ever made official.
It was funny at first but soon lost its humour. OTOH the Bas Heath campaign on 201 was something else again.
