US's most powerful nuclear bomb being dismantled

[allaire]

Ye gods bcadoo.
I would personally be more worried about Mertvaya Ruka, Dead Hand, or Tony Little than about these rusting hazards.

[eagl]

Whoops.. My bad.. Even still, its way more than enough was my point

It's never enough.

As for the original topic, the troubling part of this weapon being dismantled is that our entire nuclear arsenal is aging, and there are no replacement weapons being developed.  That means at some point we will be forced to give up one or more of our nuclear triad deterrent forces, and it would be a minimum of 10 years before a "crash" development program could revive it.  There is already a gap developing, due to some systems being within their obsolescence window and funding being shut off from the replacement/refurbishment programs.

We knew this would happen approximately 4 years ago, because we were told it would become national policy to stop nuke weapon development.  The capability gap is probably unavoidable now.  Once you give up nukes, even if development is merely halted for a couple of years, it's hella-expensive to get them back.

[vonKrimm]

Some one knock some sense into tyrannis please.

We would need to use something akin the mass of Saturn to accomplish that task.

[Rondar]

First of the earth is not flat so you can't detect an ICBM launching immediately with radar.  Most early-warning satellites have a infrared sensor facing towards the earth either using a either a dedicated satellite like Lockheed Martin's Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) which is being developed since the 90s and is billions of dollars over budget (like all Lockheed Martin Projects(which I hate to say as much as I like Kelly Johnson)).  Sometimes it is a hosted payload ,meaning on a commercial telecommunications satellite of some kind sharing the ride up and the cost, sensor which is much cheaper and just as effective like Orbital Science's CHIRP program which also uses an infrared sensor.

Tyrannis I put down those specific examples so you could research them if you choose.

I always wondered if some of the overbudget stuff was a way to get the money for the secret stuff that gets developed.  Or at least part of it. 

[mijoieau]

See Rule #6

[Flipperk]

The biggest problem is that some d%^ head can press the button or even a hacker could start a worse case scenario, best to let go of nukes and maybe spend less on mass killing and just sort out the problem countries and the leaders because no one is ever going to use nukes unless they are mad.

Its a economic world now and we are all linked so threats like Saudi and other can just pull the 4 -5 trillion out of the usa and that's as good as dropping a big bomb, the whole thing with nukes its very 1960s.

Forkit

Wrong, nuclear weapons are an insurance policy...it is to deter the mad people from launching nukes, because they will die if they do...well what happens when the bad guy has a nuclear weapon and we do not? We are $#%@ that's what...

...we are not afraid of the sane people, but the mad ones...and as you just stated your method will not work...

[eagl]

The biggest problem is that some d%^ head can press the button or even a hacker could start a worse case scenario

It's probably the fault of whoever mis-educated you, but you are talking out of your a&$.  You don't know what it takes to launch a nuke, don't know the command/control process, and couldn't spell "nuclear surety" if it...  Well, if you calm down and think about it, it might occur to you that the people in charge of our nukes have somewhat more common sense than the average "hacker launches nuclear weapon" movie script writer.

I've been there.  All I will say is that there are people in the loop so automated computer attacks couldn't result in a nuke going off, and it is unlikely that any conspiracy would be both broad and deep enough to include all of the individuals whose consent and willing participation is required to let the sunshine out of the can.

[zack1234]

Who is going to drop a nuke on the US?

Give me three examples if who is going to nuke the US

Remember Ruskis are capitalist now

[ArcticKat]

Give me three examples if who is going to nuke the US

Terrorists, terrorists and terrorists?  You think some knucklehead that is willing to kill a few hundred with a car-bomb would be reluctant to set off a nuke?

[zack1234]

They are where to drop a retaliation nuke on?

Those people go straight to heaven so nukes don't scare them

Buy some nukes of Russia they have lots going cheap

[icepac]

The sprint missile system surely had the capability to intercept icbm reentry vehicles back in 1972.

There is a new system that attains the same speeds and gives better stand-off........just less acceleration than the sprint.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZZV464z9g8

[zack1234]

Lol 

[Bodhi]

See Rule #14

[Tyrannis]

See Rule #14

[Pigslilspaz]

See Rule #14