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Obama Dismantles Most Powerful Weapon In U.S. Arsenal



Oct 25, 2011 1 Comment ›› Pat Dollard

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.

The final components of the B53 bomb will be broken down Tuesday at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, the nation’s only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility. The completion of the dismantling 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.”

With its destruction, the next largest bomb in operation will be the B83, said Hans Kristensen, a spokesman for the Federation of American Scientists. It’s 1.2 megatons, while the B53 was 9 megatons.


  • Reloader

    Guess they long ago got rid of the shapes carried by the B-52H’s I used to work on. Those were the 16 megaton B61 “Big Berthas.” BUFF’s carried TWO B61′s, in addtition to as many as six Short Range Attack Missiles (SRAM’s), which were also nuclear. The plan was such that when a BUFF encountered a SAM site on its way into Soviet airspace, it would nuke it with a SRAM. MiG fighter base up ahead? Nuke it with a SRAM. The airplanes were going to stomp their way into the Soviet Union, unstoppable. This scared the sh i t out of the Rooskies. Many such B-52′s were retired from this duty and decommissioned according to a treaty signed by President Nixon in 1978, IIRC. Just FYI.