[Frank_Discussion]

%#*@!

[Prof Engineer]

Bummer. This is not a good thing, I'm afraid.

[eastforker]

I agree they need to be destroyed.In this day and age with cruise and tomahawks there really is no need for nuke artillery.

[hchutch]

Any takes on this?

We don't have 8-inch artillery, but there are 155mm guns. Any chance of getting the W82 back in production?

[Starrgaizr]

So, like, when do they show up at the local Army/Navy surplus store? "Makes a great gift!"

[pabianice]

Video and photos of blast.

http://www.vce.com/grable.html

[wattsup]

Although I am a retired ex-nuke spook from the USAF, I was at a base that was shared by us and the 55GOLFs of the USA. They had the W79 and believe me when it came time to do some "maintenance" on those type, well let's say good riddance. Not a very friendly nuke.

[Destructor]

"This administration is committed to reducing the threat of nuclear weapons worldwide," said U.S. Department of Energy Secretary"

Someone please explain to me how this will persuade China, North Korea, and Pakistan to destroy their battlefield nukes as well? I must be dense, because it seems like this would only make the U.S. a more tempting target.

[68skylark]

This is good news. There is no possible scenario where these weapons would be used, and it's an expensive pain in the backside to guard them 24/7.

Back when I joined the field artillery in 1981 we regularily trained to fire one of these rounds at advancing communist hordes in central Europe. It would have made quite a bang.

[GreyFriar]

Nuclear surety inspections for artillery units were major events. Training for them consumed many hours, and gave people something to do when cooped up on a kaserne in Germany with nothing else to do but to do gun drills in the motor pool. And if the unit failed, the LTC commanding could kiss his career good-bye.

As for learning how to pay attention to the smallest detail, artillery nuke weapons training was certainly an excellent way.

Fondly remember huddling around the nuke rounds during the cold snowy winters hoping to get the little bit of warmth that came from them. (Right, the rounds never left their bunkers.)

[semaj]

SHORTSIGHTED.

[Phsstpok]

"Eliminating the last nuclear artillery warhead marks the end of an era in U.S. defense policy that included ground-launched battlefield nuclear weapons,"

In a little noticed press release from DARPA it was announced that the anti-matter rounds for the venerable M14 have been fully tested and are in full production and will be forwarded to troops in Iraq starting in January. In addition the 30 megaton kinetic energy kill capabilities of the just announced Air Force Space Plane have been confirmed and they can start dropping rocks on the Afghan-Pakhistan border to coincide with the dropping of the New Years Eve ball in Times Square. Dick Clark will do live reporting of the fireballs from the capitol of Afghanistan, where they should be clearly visible.

Secretary Rumsfeld wishes everyone would have a nice day.

[Rome2000]

The good news is that they can be reassembled, if not as quickly as a raghead can put together a WMD in Iraq, but quick enough.