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US Forgets How To Make Trident Missiles
Hugh Pickens writes "The US and the UK are trying to refurbish the aging W76 warheads that tip Trident missiles to prolong their life and ensure they are safe and reliable but plans have been put on hold because US scientists have forgotten how to manufacture a mysterious but very hazardous component of the warhead codenamed Fogbank. 'NNSA had lost knowledge of how to manufacture the material because it had kept few records of the process when the material was made in the 1980s, and almost all staff with expertise on production had retired or left the agency,' says the report by a US congressional committee. Fogbank is thought by some weapons experts to be a foam used between the fission and fusion stages of the thermonuclear bomb on the Trident Missile and US officials say that manufacturing Fogbank requires a solvent cleaning agent which is 'extremely flammable' and 'explosive,' and that the process involves dealing with 'toxic materials' hazardous to workers. 'This is like James Bond destroying his instructions as soon as he has read them,' says John Ainslie, the co-ordinator of the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, adding that 'perhaps the plans for making Fogbank were so secret that no copies were kept.' Thomas D'Agostino, administrator or the US National Nuclear Security Administration, told a congressional committee that the administration was spending 'a lot of money' trying to make 'Fogbank' at Y-12, but 'we're not out of the woods yet.'"
you can download the instruction from the Pirate Bay...
Just get Gordon Ramsay to taste it. He'll tell you what's in it.
Let Dr. Gaius Baltar reverse engineer the missiles and contruct a superior refurbished version (like an old MacBook with a new main board and fat harddrive).
We need to get back the ol' American ingenuity and CAN-DO attitude! Remember we Uh-Mericans can do anything!
Wouldn't it be ironic if the missing ingredient in making Fogbank was Butter?
Torontoman
My European grandmother made a cake that could easily withstand the middle stages of a nuclear explosion.
The material in the design specification was essentially unobtanium.
... also known as element 404.
is tar!
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
I may be large, but I'm not a building!
If you started doing mountains of blow again, you would think everything was great again.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Wouldn't it be ironic if the missing ingredient in making Fogbank was Butter?
Torontoman
Actually, there are several missing ingredients.
Disclaimer: The opinions and actions of the US Gov't are in no way representative of those held by this author or its ci
Perhaps we can buy back the plans from China? Thank Clinton for selling them most of our nuclear secrets.
He wasn't selling secrets, he was making backups!
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I heard they have the file that contains all of the instructions for making it, BUT the file is in a proprietary binary format and no one knows how to read it.
Unless you have to overcome the counter measures and the chances that a few of your warheads may malfunction. We must calulate in a safety factor for annihlating the entire world. I think a factor of 5 to 10 (or maybe a little more) should be adequate.
Yee-haw!
Maybe you should visit your local pharmacist and ask him to give you something for redness around the neck area.
Governments are made of people. And people are stupid.
Best t-shirt slogan ever!
-Billco, Fnarg.com
It's got electrolytes.
Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
altslashdot.org: The future of slashdot.
I think Iran is pumping up oil to increase the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere to melt the icecaps, releasing vast amounts of Dihydrogen Monoxide into the environment to kill scores of people and wreak economic havoc!
It's chemical warfare, plain and simple!
I'm so glad we have Slashdot's moderation system to label macho crap like this as "insightful". What is wrong with you people?
Now there's an oxymoron.
According to Dr. Seuss, that would just lead to an arms race between countries that butter their warheads on top and those who butter their warheads on the bottom.
I agree, let's instead turn into the global superpower of pranksters. I say we load up every missle completely with 3/4 inch round superballs. then program the missles to detonate their ejection charge 2 miles up. that would allow a wide dispersion. Also add bullhorns with parachutes and a looping mp3 of "HA-HA!" over and over and over falling out of the sky.
we can also rebuild a Saturn 5 and equip it with a very large self deploying cream pie to shoot at North Korea.
Actually, there are several missing ingredients.
As for instructions, place all ingredients in commercial blender and blend on high for two minutes (you have to hold the lid down because the kittens will not like this). Centrifuge the resulting goo for 20 minutes. Place ONLY the clear liquid portion of the results in a cotton candy machine and place that inside a vacuum chamber. Reduce air pressure inside chamber to zero PSI. When cotton candy machine has heated to operating temperature activate spinner. Shut down machine, slowly release the vacuum, and then collect your Fogbank on a paper cone.
The above information sourced from many unrelated wikihow articles.
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
Fogbank is made from PEOPLE!!!
Governments are made of people.
I thought it was Soylent Green that was made of people.
Yeah, I thought James Bond destroys the instructions without reading them?
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
You'd never notice a launch, because they're launching aircraft of all sizes out of there night and day with constant training flights and U2 overflight.
Fucking Bono.
...they never recreated Captain America's shield?
You probably wouldn't see that red if you would take off those glasses. You should probably ask your doctor about that yellow around your midsection as well.
Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon. -- Susan Ertz
There are a few "retired" battleships that are basically floating museums now that fit that criteria.
Ooh, yeah! And their outdated tech will allow them to survive the electronic attack that obliterates the rest of the fleet; they will wander the oceans for four years looking for the mythical "Great Britain", and then the last couple of episodes will be really boring.
sic transit gloria mundi
"I thought the goal of the foam was to just become completely ionized and become transparent to X-rays? How hard can that really be when a fission weapon is exploding a few feet away."
I assume pretty hard if you're trying to become a lens to *focus* those X-rays, and do it within nanoseconds while in the process of being destroyed.
"Unless there is something they aren't telling us ;)"
A nuclear power withholding detailed descriptions of how their mega-kill-bombs work? Unpossible.
You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC