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No nuclear Air Launched Cruise Missiles anymore?


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From what I can read, there are no air launched nuclear cruise missiles in service. The SRAM has been gone awhile, and it seems that the nuclear ALCM has been taken out of service or converted to conventional munitions. B-52s and B-1s now only carry now non-nuclear payloads, and only gravity fall nukes are listed for the B-2, which means the aircraft has to get up close and personal before it drops.

Comments? Am I missing something? What about Tomahawks?

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Ok, you are right. B-52s still carry them. Supposedly they will time out in 2020 and that will be the end of that. I guess the B-1 and B-2 no longer have a nuclear role, which just seems weird to me, as they are more survivable than a B-52. I would have thought that if anything, the B-1 and B-2 would be used for strategic deterrence, and the B-52 would be the conventional bomb truck. Maybe the B-1 could do both as it can carry so much.

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I know its off topic, but the Brookings Institute hosted a panel discussion on START treaty with some of the key principals. If you're interested about the nitty gritty of nuclear weapons, I think you'll find it very interesting (particularly the inspection regime in the first panel).

http://www.brookings.edu/events/2012/0210_new_start.aspx

For some reason in the last month I've read like 3 books on nuclear weapons/strategy. I'm not sure why.

Edited by -Neu-
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Ok, you are right. B-52s still carry them. Supposedly they will time out in 2020 and that will be the end of that. I guess the B-1 and B-2 no longer have a nuclear role, which just seems weird to me, as they are more survivable than a B-52. I would have thought that if anything, the B-1 and B-2 would be used for strategic deterrence, and the B-52 would be the conventional bomb truck. Maybe the B-1 could do both as it can carry so much.

B-2 still as the Nuke roll, F-35 could/will to. B-1 is another story, pretty much its roll was put into place years and years ago.

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What about that pylon full of armed ALCMs that BUFF unkowingly carried from Minot to Barksdale a couple of years ago?

Darwin

Those were -129's supposedly they are retired now.

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All US tactical fighters are wired for nukes and (I assume) the pilots still occasionally practice that mission.

I thought the START treaties also saw the elimination of tactical nukes. Maybe it was only Army nuclear tipped shells?

Basically I thought both the Russians and the Americans were limited via START to a few thousand strategic nukes via ICBM, SLBM, Cruise Missiles and Free Fall bombs.

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From what I can read, there are no air launched nuclear cruise missiles in service. The SRAM has been gone awhile, and it seems that the nuclear ALCM has been taken out of service or converted to conventional munitions. B-52s and B-1s now only carry now non-nuclear payloads, and only gravity fall nukes are listed for the B-2, which means the aircraft has to get up close and personal before it drops.

Comments? Am I missing something? What about Tomahawks?

As a former fabricater of the darkness,there is plenty to go around. Edited by AeroCommander690
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I thought the START treaties also saw the elimination of tactical nukes. Maybe it was only Army nuclear tipped shells?

Basically I thought both the Russians and the Americans were limited via START to a few thousand strategic nukes via ICBM, SLBM, Cruise Missiles and Free Fall bombs.

Again, you really really really need to listen to that Brookings institute podcast I posted above. Its a great overview of the nuclear situation, with ALOT of inside information about negotiations and the like.

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