America’s newest nuclear bomb design has been successfully tested on the F-15E, making the Strike Eagle the first fighter jet to be officially compatible with the B61-12 design.
According to a release by Sandia Labs, two test flights were flown twice in March at the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada. The mock weapon released on one test at about 1,000 feet and nearly the sound speed, while a higher-altitude test occurred at around 25,000 feet; both tests hit the target as designed.
“It’s representative of the environment for the weapon,” Steven Samuels, a manager with Sandia’s B61-12 system’s team, said in a news release. “The flight test is everything coming together to say we’re good.”
The B61-12 program will replace the B61-3, -4, -7, and -10 nuclear gravity bomb variants with a new warhead design. The warhead is being developed and produced by the National Nuclear Security Administration, a semi-independent agency located within the Department of Energy. The Pentagon is developing new tail kit assemblies for the design.