According to the National Defense Strategy Report released by the US Department of Defense, the United States will retire the most powerful B83-1 thermonuclear bomb.
“The B83-1 gravity bomb will be retired due to its increasingly limited capabilities (in terms of use) and growing technical maintenance costs,” the report states.
The report states that other existing capabilities are planned to be used to threaten “inaccessible and deep targets” in the near term. In order to better strike these targets, the Department of Defense and relevant departments of its partner countries are developing a new type of weapon based on existing technology, the report said.
The B83-1 thermonuclear bomb (hydrogen bomb) has an explosive yield of 1.2 million tons of TNT. It is the single-warhead nuclear weapon with the largest yield in the US military. Its weapon is an unguided free-fall nuclear bomb with a length of 3.66 meters and a diameter of 45.72 cm. , the weight is 1088 kg. This weight can be mounted by any NATO fighter. The picture is an F5 “Tiger” light fighter. In theory, once a nuclear war breaks out, any NATO fighter can become a nuclear bomber, which greatly expands its use. tool.
So, why doesn’t the B83-1 nuclear bomb use a precision guidance component? This is because the simpler the weapon form of the nuclear bomb, the better, so that the failure rate can be greatly reduced during the throwing process. On the contrary, the more complex it is, the easier it is to make mistakes. Therefore, the nuclear bombs currently in service in the world are all uncontrolled free fall types.
In addition, the interior of the nuclear warhead is very precise and is not allowed to be interfered with, and the precision guidance components are likely to generate static electricity, magnetic fields, and other interference phenomena during the operation. If the control circuit inside the nuclear bomb is affected, it is likely that the nuclear bomb will not explode. , so nuclear bombs generally do not use precision guidance, and not necessarily all fighter aircraft’s ammunition management computers have the ability to identify precision-guided munitions, and they cannot be used if they are not recognized by management software, while uncontrolled bombs do not. Identification is required, as long as the hook matches the hanger.
However, throwing uncontrolled bombs requires the pilot to have a superb level of bomb-dropping technology, otherwise it will be difficult to hit the area to be nuclear attacked. The war is not at the shooting range, and the low level of technology will be easily used by the enemy’s fighter jets and ground air defense systems. shoot down.
The B83-1 type was upgraded and improved from the B83 type in the mid-1980s, almost 35 years ago. With the gradual aging of the nuclear bomb, the maintenance cost is gradually increasing, and the 1.2 million tons of TNT equivalent is limited in use. The United States has already stated in its nuclear policy that it may use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear countries in the future, but warheads such as the B83-1 are too large to be used at all, and the B61-type weapons with adjustable nuclear yield are very practical. Its yield can be adjusted between 5,000 tons and 300,000 tons, and it can be used as a tactical nuclear weapon as well as a strategic nuclear weapon. For example: improve the W78 type.
The F-35A throws B61-12 bombs. Since the weight and size of the B61-12 are not large, the built-in magazine of the F35 can hold two bombs.
The B62-12 is equipped with a rocket booster, which not only improves the descending speed of the bomb, but also greatly improves the accuracy.
In short, the current nuclear policy of the United States is to lower the nuclear threshold more and more. In the future, it will definitely vigorously develop low-yield nuclear weapons. However, low-yield does not mean that the nuclear damage capability is reduced, but it is trying to improve the accuracy. Not only nuclear bombs, The installed ICBM is W87 (Military III) and W88 (Trident II). The CEP error is currently within 100 meters, and it will be further increased to about 50 meters. The equivalent of 400,000 tons is 50 meters away from the target. The explosive power has been Equivalent to the past million tons.
For us, we still have to keep megaton nuclear warheads, because we have a small number of warheads, and high-yield warheads are more deterrent when there is no need for a nuclear arms race.