May 29, 2014

NNSA CONDUCTS SUCCESSFUL WIND TUNNEL TEST ON B61

By ExchangeMonitor

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s B61 life extension program has reached another milestone as Sandia National Laboratories officials successfully conducted the first wind tunnel test of the refurbished nuclear bomb. The eight days of testing at the largest wind tunnel that could accommodate the warhead, the Air Force’s Arnold Engineering and Development Center at Arnold Air Force Base, sets up three full-scale development drop tests at the Tonapah Test Range scheduled in 2015, the NNSA said.

The wind tunnel test was designed over the course of three years to evaluate how the rocket motors on the refurbished bomb interact with the performance of the bomb’s fins. The rocket motors and fins control the B61’s spin as it is dropped from an airplane, but testing during the 1990s revealed that plumes from the motors worked against the fins, which the lab said counteracted the torque from the motors and cut down on its spin rate. Because the B61 uses a new tailkit design, new tests were needed to evaluate the spin of the bomb as it is dropped. “The improved understanding will inform the design of the B61-12 and provide an additional technical basis for the well-characterized performance of the versions of the B61 in the current U.S. stockpile,” Sandia said in a statement.

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