US Should Retain B83 Bomb
Copyright 2023 by Michael H. Maggelet
The B83 strategic bomb, first deployed
to FB-111 bases in mid 1984 (and later to SAC B-52's), was derived from the B77 thermonuclear
bomb. I worked on the first mod of the B83, and since it was a newly
deployed modern weapon, there wasn't much maintenance to perform
internally. There were several retrofits accomplished just as I
arrived at my new base, and the B83 was a welcome arrival compared to
the B43 bomb which had been in the stockpile since 1960.
I
won't go into the technical details regarding the B83, only to say
that it was quite easy to maintain compared to the labor intensive
B43, and made our operations much easier since it contained
insensitive high explosive (and it was more versatile for strike
aircraft). [1]
Statements by detractors that the B83 has "too high a yield" are laughable, since the bomb has selectable yields for a variety of targets. [2]
Given the Russian, Chinese, and North Korean emphasis
on building command posts and other high value targets in mountains
and in heavily reinforced underground complexes, the US only has a
limited number of weapons to destroy these targets. In addition,
the B61-11 bomb has an earth penetrating capability. These weapons
can only be delivered by the B-2, since nuclear gravity bombs were
recently removed from B-52H's.
While some portion of the ICBM
and SLBM force can attack and possibly neutralize some underground
facilities, the use of low yield SLBM warheads and air launched
cruise missiles cannot be successfully used to destroy deeply buried underground
complexes with surface bursts.
1. "Nuclear Weapon Characteristics Handbook" by Sandia National Laboratories, September 1990. Declassified/sanitized from "Secret/Restricted Data", p. 77.
2. Low yield option discussed by General C. Robert Kehler during the "Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces of the Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives, 113th Congress, 1st Session, October 29, 2013".
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-113hhrg86075/html/CHRG-113hhrg86075.htm
B83 load shapes maintained by the author and other 463X0 personnel at Plattsburgh AFB, NY in the mid '80's (photo FB-111A.net).