Big bomb laid to rest
An article by Sandia Labs discussing the disposition of an old, old, OLD Mk 17 nuclear bomb “trainer.” Obviously this isn’t, never was, an actual thermonuclear weapon, but a training device; as such, it doubtless included a lot of the same parts as the actual bomb.
The Mk 17 was a giant of a bomb, deliverable only by the B-36; with a yield of about 15 megatons, it was delivered in 1954, withdrawn from service in 1957. Consequently, this thing is pushing seventy years in age. The article states that it was “transported to Kirtland Air Force Base for its end-of-lifecycle dismantlement and disposition.” One *hopes* that means it’ll be lovingly restored and sent to a good museum for display. One fears it means it’ll be disassembled and scrapped. That *seems* to be its fate based on the vague descriptions of what’ll happen to it.
2 responses to “It belongs in a museum”
It should be in a museum, but probably a very limited access museum. As a trainer, it’s a real bomb, minus the explosives, fissile core, H-bomb specialty products and accessories at least. Even 60 years out I think you want to keep stuff like that out of the public eye. Some highly motivated individual could learn a lot from this thing.
The outer casings of several Mk 17’s are on display at a few museums… the USAFM in Dayton, the SAC museum in Nebraska, the Atomic museum in New Mexico. The *innards* are, so far as I’m aware, not on display anywhere. I have no idea how much of the Mk 17’s innards are in this training device… for al I know, it was simply used to train crews on how to load into a B-36 and then remove, so other than the B-36 interfaces it’s just a weight simulator. Or it might be quite complete.