WW3 fears as US Air Force drops ‘nuclear gravity bombs’ from fighter jet

World War Three fears have been sparked after The Energy Department and Air Force successfully completed the first-ever tests of dropping unarmed B61-12 nuclear gravity bombs from an F-35A fighter jet in August.

Sandia National Laboratories, which helps oversee America’s nuclear weapons, announced the news this week. Sandia said in a Thursday statement that it worked with the National Nuclear Security Administration to run several flight tests at the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada from August 19 to 21. Personnel and aircraft from Hill Air Force Base in Utah also took part.

These were the first and only tests so far of the B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb being released from an F-35. They marked a major step toward proving that the aircraft, the crews and especially the nuclear gravity bombs would function reliably on a real mission.

The B61-12 bombs used in the tests were “joint test assemblies,” which means they were the same as real bombs used in war except they did not contain nuclear warheads.

Jeffrey Boyd, Sandia’s surveillance lead for the B61-12 and -13 bombs, said: “These B61-12 F-35A stockpile flight tests and captive carry flight test were the capstone accomplishment of a tremendous amount of planning and effort by those who were involved across not only Sandia, but many other agencies.”

He added: “In addition, these B61-12 stockpile flight tests represent the completion of the most B61-12 flight testing surveillance scope in a year to date and the most in a given year for the foreseeable future.”

The testers also performed, for the first time, thermal preconditioning on the bomb before loading it onto the F-35. This proved that the nuclear gravity bomb would work correctly in real-world temperatures and conditions.

Sandia released videos and photos showing staff and Air Force crews carefully moving a B61-12 across the Hill Air Force Base flightline early on August 19, then loading two of the bombs into the F-35’s internal weapons bays before it flew to Tonopah.

One image shows a B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb (a joint test assembly without the nuclear explosive package) just moments before hitting the ground at Tonopah after being released from an F-35A from Hill Air Force Base.

The B61 line of nuclear gravity bombs has been used by the U.S. Air Force and NATO for more than 50 years. In December of last year, the NNSA finished a major life-extension program on the B61-12, giving it at least 20 more years of service. This effort refurbished, reused, or replaced many nuclear and non-nuclear parts.

The B61-12 replaced older versions in the U.S. stockpile – the B61-3, -4, and -7 – according to a 2021 Air Force release. It was the first major modernisation of an Air Force nuclear warhead in over 30 years. As part of this upgrade, the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center guided the creation of a new guided tail kit made by Boeing, and integrated the bomb with the B-2 Spirit bomber and the F-15E, F-16, and F-35 fighters.

Brian Adkins, the Tonopah Test Range manager who oversaw these tests, said the effort involved two strong days of testing to evaluate three test assets.

These F-35 nuclear bomb tests happened well before President Donald Trump posted on social media in late October claiming he had told the Defense Department to “start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis,” and suggesting other nations were secretly doing so. His comments raised fears that the U.S. might end its more than 30-year halt on nuclear test explosions.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in an early November interview that the government was working on tests involving parts of new nuclear weapons, but these tests would not include a full nuclear explosion.