Lieutenant
General Robert
Paul Ashley Jr, Director, US DIA, is not saying much when he asserted
late May 2019:
"The United States believes that Russia
probably is not adhering to its nuclear testing moratorium in a manner
consistent with the zero-yield standard."
This is given the US successfully
performed a "zero-yield nuclear" tests in Nevada, 2017 to the present day:
“Scientists at Sandia National
Laboratories claim to have successfully tested an upgraded version of the B61-12
nuclear bomb.
The US has been working on the
B61-12 for several years, and government officials say the latest tests are
vital to refurbishing efforts.
An F-16 from Nellis Air Force
Base in March successfully dropped a zero-yield version of the bomb over the
Nevada desert. It left a "neat hole" and crews were able to dig it
out of the dirt for further study.
Sandia Stockpile Resource
Center Director Anna Schauer said, "It's great to see things all come
together: the weapon design, the test preparation, the aircraft, the range and
the people who made it happen."
Scientists will spend the next
several months analyzing data gathered from the test flight.
Officials say the US is
planning more test flights over the next three years, and the B61-12's first
production unit is scheduled to be completed in 2020.
The current B61-12
consolidates and replaces four older versions in the nation's nuclear arsenal.”
Youtube: Testing of the B61-12 nuclear bomb in mid 2018. Narrative kicks in at 20 seconds. Bomb device technical details very interesting from 2 min 37 secs.
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The official legal - technological definitions of nuclear weapons
testing are highly complex, ambiguous, even contradictory and include:
“"zero yield" safety tests of warheads, whether the test is successful (there is no nuclear yield) or the test
is unsuccessful (there is a nuclear yield). It does not include hydronuclear, cold or subcritical tests because no nuclear explosions are possible, even in
failure. In these sorts of tests there may be small amounts of chain reaction
occurring, but they stop before materially adding to the chemical explosion
that causes them.
The line here is finely drawn, but, among other things,
subcritical testing is not prohibited by the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, while safety tests are...”
Maybe
Russia like all other legal and illegal nuclear nations (India, Pakistan, North Korea, not to mention Israel) continues to conduct “zero-yield” nuclear tests?
Pete
A little confusion here, Pete: The US test was a *flight test* - using an inert warhead. The proposition is that Russia is conducting zero yield *warhead tests*.
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