An Air Force F-35A successfully carried and dropped inert B61-12 nuclear gravity bombs in flight tests in August, a rare disclosure about the state of U.S. nuclear testing.
Sandia National Laboratories announced the tests in a Nov. 13 release, providing both photos and video from the tests at Tonopah Test Range in Nevada. Sandia said the tests were conducted “in conjunction with” the National Nuclear Security Administration. Airmen and aircraft from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, supported the tests.
NNSA and the Air Force conducted tests in 2020 and testing continued until October 2023, when the F-35 was officially certified to carry nuclear bombs.
The latest tests were stockpile flight tests—required to ensure the nuclear stockpile remains safe, secure, and effective. The nuclear components in the bomb are replaced with telemetry equipment, which collects data. Airmen demonstrate the training and procedures necessary for handling nuclear weapons.
“The August tests were the only B61-12 stockpile flight tests of joint test assemblies on an F-35 aircraft, solidifying the end-to-end reliability of the aircraft, crews and weapon system during missions,” the Sandia release states. Joint test assembly is NNSA’s term for an unarmed flight test unit.
The B61 weapons, which first entered service in the 1960s, completed a service life extension program in 2024 intended to ensure the bombs would be usable for another 20 years at least.
“The 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,” Jeffrey Boyd, surveillance lead for the B61-12, said in a statement.
NNSA is developing the next variant of the B61, the B61-13.
The Air Force and NNSA regularly conduct tests of nuclear delivery systems. Interest in the tests surged recently after President Donald Trump suggested the U.S. would resume nuclear weapons testing, something it has not done since 1992.
In an interview that aired Nov. 2 on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Trump said that Russia and China were conducting underground tests of nuclear weapons, and in social media posts as recently as Nov. 5, Trump has said the U.S. should test on “an equal basis.”
He did not, however, provide details, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright later clarified that the tests would focus not on nuclear explosions but on “the other parts of a nuclear weapon.” The Air Force conducted a test launch of an unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile on Nov. 5.
The F-35 and B61-12 stockpile tests took place before Trump and Wright’s comments.
