Sandia National Laboratories said on Tuesday that it successfully conducted a rocket-driven impact test of the B61-11 bomb’s nonnuclear components.
The Nov. 20 test was the first of its kind in seven years. Engineers lifted the bomb attached to a rocket sled track. Once lit, the rocket drove the bomb into the ground. Sandia said the B61-11 performed as expected, penetrating a concrete target.
The B61 comprises a large portion of the United States’ Enduring Stockpile following the Cold War. While international law prevents tests of nuclear weapons, the United States continues to test component parts of the stockpile at random. Some earlier versions of the B61 may be up to 40 years old.
“One of the main purposes of the stockpile is deterrence, so one important way to assure deterrence is to have a successful surveillance test that shows our systems work,” Sandia Senior Manager Patrick Sena said in a statement.
The test had been postponed following an October 2008 accident on Sandia’s 10,000-foot rocket sled track. The lab refined its testing area over a three-year period. One of several tests the stockpile undergoes, such “flight tests” also allow engineers to observe the bomb’s response to shock, vibration, temperature, rotation and weather.