Most Powerful Nuke Being Dismantled Today

AMARILLO, Texas (AP) — The last of the nation's most powerful nuclear bombs — a weapon hundreds of times stronger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima — is being disassembled nearly half a century after it was put into service at the height of the Cold War.

The final components of the B53 bomb will be broken down today at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, the nation's only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility. The completion of the dismantling program is a year ahead of schedule, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, and aligns with President Barack Obama's goal of reducing the number of nuclear weapons.
Thomas D'Agostino, the nuclear administration's chief, called the bomb's elimination a "significant milestone."

First put into service in 1962, when Cold War tensions peaked during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the B53 weighed 10,000 pounds and was the size of a minivan. According to the American Federation of Scientists, it was 600 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, at the end of World War II.

The B53 was designed to destroy facilities deep underground, and it was carried by B-52 bombers.

Since it was made using older technology by engineers who have since retired or died, developing a disassembly process took time. Engineers had to develop complex tools and new procedures to ensure safety.

"We knew going in that this was going to be a challenging project, and we put together an outstanding team with all of our partners to develop a way to achieve this objective safely and efficiently," said John Woolery, the plant's general manager.

Many of the B53s were disassembled in the 1980s, but a significant number remained in the U.S. arsenal until they were retired from the stockpile in 1997. Pantex spokesman Greg Cunningham said he couldn't comment on how many of the bombs have been disassembled at the Texas plant.

The weapon is considered dismantled when the roughly 300 pounds of high explosives inside are separated from the special nuclear material, known as the pit. The uranium pits from bombs dismantled at Pantex will be stored on an interim basis at the plant, Cunningham said.

The material and components are then processed, which includes sanitizing, recycling and disposal, the National Nuclear Security Administration said last fall when it announced the Texas plant's role in the B53 dismantling.

The plant will play a large role in similar projects as older weapons are retired from the U.S.'s nuclear arsenal.

F-15 crashes in Nevada- pilot ejects safely

ALAMO, Nev. — An Air Force fighter jet crashed in a sparsely populated part of southern Nevada on Monday, but the pilot was able to eject from the aircraft and didn’t suffer any injuries, authorities said.

The F-15C Eagle from Nellis Air Force Base crashed on federal land northwest of Alamo, Nev., said Lt. Ken Lustig, an Air Force spokesman. Alamo is about 100 miles north of Las Vegas.

Lincoln County Sheriff Kerry Lee said a citizen reported seeing a large explosion and fireball west of U.S. Highway 93 shortly after 4 p.m. Deputies made their way over rough terrain and through a ranch toward the plume of smoke about five miles from the highway, he said.

“It was out in the desert, really hard to get to,” Lee said. When deputies arrived, they found a debris field about 100 yards long.

“It didn’t look like the plane slammed into the ground,” the sheriff said. “There was a lot of the plane left, but it burned up.”

The pilot had started walking and was picked up by a military helicopter about 30 minutes after the crash, Lee said. He was flown to Mike O’Callaghan Federal Hospital near Las Vegas for an examination that revealed no injuries, Lustig said.

F-22s grounded - again.

FOX NEWS:

All F-22 Raptors at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia have been grounded after a pilot experienced loss of oxygen while flying.

Air Force officials are meeting on Friday to determine whether it is necessary to extend the grounding to the rest of the F-22 fleet. The pilot experienced what is known as "hypoxia," and had to return to base.

America's premier fighter jet has experienced similar problems in the past, though it is not clear what is causing the problem. The Air Force last month brought the jets back into service after a grounding months earlier over oxygen issues.

"There is no conclusive cause or group of causes that has been established for the incidents that prompted the stand down earlier this year," the Air Force said in a statement Friday.
While the Air Force is again using F-22s, the statement said officials are making improvements and pausing when needed.

"Part of our protocol is to allow units to pause operations whenever they need to analyze information collected from flight operations to ensure safety. That is what is happening at Langley at the moment, and we support that decision," the statement said.


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How Creech drone/NATO jets cornered Gaddafi for rebel forces

Special To The The Telegraph: Nato forces designated Gaddafi as a military target after the former Libyan leader’s forces started firing on civilians as they tried to escape Sirte in a convoy of up to 100 vehicles.

It is understood that RAF Tornados were patrolling over Sirte at the time of the escape attempt but were not directly involved in the operation.

Gaddafi had been under surveillance by Nato forces for the past week after an intelligence breakthrough allowed them to pinpoint his location.

An American drone and an array of Nato eavesdropping aircraft had been trained on his Sirte stronghold to ensure he could not escape.

Intelligence sources have suggested that in his last days Gaddafi broke his rigid rule of telephone silence and was overheard using either a mobile or satellite phone. Voice recognition technology would have instantly picked up any call that he made.

MI6 agents and CIA officers on the ground were also providing intelligence and it is believed that Gaddafi was given a code name in the same way that US forces used the name Geronimo during the operation to kill Osama bin Laden.

Since the fall of Tripoli in August, intelligence services have been searching for Gaddafi across Libya and beyond using agents, special forces and eavesdropping equipment.
US and British special forces had trawled through Gaddafi’s former desert stronghold around Sirte and the south of Libya without finding him.

At one point they concluded that he probably had fled the country.
But as the National Transition Council forces increased their stranglehold on Sirte, Gaddafi decided to make a run for it at 8.30 yesterday morning.

Defence sources referred to the move as “tantamount to suicide”.

“US Predators and French drones have been staking out the centre of Sirte for several weeks trying to monitor what’s going on on the battlefield,” said an intelligence source. “They built up a normal pattern of life picture so that when something unusual happened this morning such as a large group of vehicles gathering together, that came across as highly unusual activity and the decision was taken to follow them and prosecute an attack.”

Electronic warfare aircraft, either an American Rivet Joint or a French C160 Gabriel, also picked up Gaddafi’s movements as he attempted to escape

There were no RAF Nimrod R1s to intercept signals intelligence as they had been axed in the middle of the campaign as part of defence cuts.

But a pair of RAF Tornado GR4s were on a “combat reconnaissance” patrol nearby and provided intelligence on vehicle movements.

The Predator drone, flown out of Sicily and controlled via satellite from a base outside Las Vegas, struck the convoy with a number of Hellfire anti-tank missiles. Moments later French jets, most likely Rafales, swept in, targeting the vehicles with 500lb Paveway bombs or highly accurate AASM munitions.

British forces are expected to withdraw from Libya in the coming weeks.
Last night, William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said: “It brings much closer the end of the Nato mission.”

US Drone/French fighter helped corner fleeing Muammar Qaddafi

A U.S. Predator drone was involved in the airstrike on Muammar Qaddafi's convoy Thursday in the moments before his death, a U.S. defense official told Fox News.

The official said the drone, along with a French fighter jet, fired on the "large convoy" leaving Qaddafi's hometown of Sirte. A French defense official earlier said about 80 vehicles were in the convoy -- the official said the strike did not destroy the convoy but that fighters on the ground afterward intercepted the vehicle carrying Qaddafi.

He was later killed, reportedly in the crossfire between Qaddafi supporters and opponents as he was being transferred.

Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi was confirmed dead on Thursday, captured near his hometown of Sirte. Here is a look back at how the "king of kings of Africa" came to an end.

President Obama and other officials would not elaborate on the circumstances of Qaddafi's death. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said only that U.S. and NATO actions helped Libyans reach this point.

But as some lawmakers continued to criticize the administration for its handling of the Libya operation, Obama pointed to the end of the Qaddafi regime as the close of a "long and painful chapter" for Libyans and defended the multilateral mission which began in March.

"Today we can definitively say that the Qaddafi regime has come to an end," Obama said. "This is a momentous day in the history of Libya."

Obama, speaking in the Rose Garden, said of Libyans, "You have won your revolution."
Obama said the NATO mission would soon be over; if so, the use of a Predator drone Thursday would mark a fitting end for U.S. involvement.

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