Nuclear weapons

One of the world's most significant historic documents will sell at public auction on the March 14. "Atomic Bombs," written just weeks before the first such weapons dropped on Japan, records a researcher's-eye view of the Manhattan Project.

Despite a 2024 so far marked with serious conflicts that threaten to escalate further, climate uncertainty and the rapid ascension of AI technologies, the famous Doomsday Clock has remained paused at 90 seconds to midnight, the same time as last year.

On November 18, 2023, over the Bay of Biscay, France successfully launched the latest unarmed version of the three-stage M51.3 strategic ballistic missile that carries the country's submarine-borne nuclear deterrent wing.

An international team of IT security experts, led by the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy (MPI-SP) and Ruhr University Bochum, have developed a way of using radio signals to verify the location of nuclear weapon stockpiles.

The US Department of Defense (DoD) has announced that the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will build a new high-yield nuclear gravity bomb called the B61-13 once given Congressional approval and funding.

The US Air Force has confirmed that its Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider heavy strategic bomber has begun ground taxi tests in Palmdale, California. The secret tests indicate that the maiden flight of the stealth warplane is on track for later this year.

The US Navy has highlighted the future of the US/UK seaborne nuclear deterrent by successfully launching a Trident II D5 Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM) from the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine USS Louisiana for a record 191 times.

In the run up to its maiden flight later this year, Northrop Grumman and the US Air Force have released new images of the B-21 Raider heavy nuclear bomber as it begins ground engine runs at Northrop's Palmdale, California, facility.

Wild boar in the woods of Austria and Germany have levels of radioactivity that makes their meat unsuitable for eating. Once thought to be the result of the Chernobyl nuclear accident, new research points to another, darker, source of contamination.

In an unpleasant reminder of the state of the world, Northrop Grumman has delivered the first refitted E-6B Mercury 'Doomsday Plane' that acts as a flying command center to control the launch of America's nuclear forces in the event of World War III.

In a teaser ahead of its first flight later this year, the US Air Force has released two new images of its B-21 Raider nuclear stealth bomber that provide new insights into the highly-classified US$692-million aircraft's design and capabilities.

Northrop Grumman has successfully completed the first full-scale static test fire of the first-stage solid-rocket motor for the LGM-35A Sentinel that will replace the US Air Force's Minuteman III nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles.