232 replies to this topic

[concorde]

I have been listening to the scanner on my phone for the last while and there is a lot of action taking place at dockyard
It could be a test scenario but the MPs and FD are evacuating buildings
A jetty is closed no one allowed there
People are being told to take K I pills which are potassium iodide used for radiation poisoning it's sound legit but maybe it's a live drill

Just out of curiusity, are there any nuclear ships even allowed into Esquimalt Harbour?  I don't believe the navy has any nuclear powered ships.  Are there nuclear weapons stored at the base?

 

I know there are a large amount of US nuclear navy ships and nuclear weapons stored in Bremerton which is about 60 miles away.  I try not to think about if there was an accident down there

[AllseeingEye]

Just out of curiusity, are there any nuclear ships even allowed into Esquimalt Harbour?  I don't believe the navy has any nuclear powered ships.  Are there nuclear weapons stored at the base?

 

I know there are a large amount of US nuclear navy ships and nuclear weapons stored in Bremerton which is about 60 miles away.  I try not to think about if there was an accident down there

Technically the answer is "no" to the first question which is why US carriers moor off Royal Roads. That said there were at least two examples I am aware of during the Cold War when nuclear vessels (USN super carriers) were known to have come into the harbour for work on their internal systems or hulls, or both. Of course that said that may have been in the days before Victoria and BC when all banana's about anything nuclear and banned them. Ditto for the second question; Canada has never had a nuclear powered vessel. Bit of a grey area on the third. I'm quite certain officially there are no nukes stored at the base however ever if there were I rather doubt the RCN would be particularly forthcoming about that if there were. In that event the warheads would almost certainly by American, and USN policy is a strict "no comment"

[Bingo]

Just out of curiusity, are there any nuclear ships even allowed into Esquimalt Harbour?  

 

Maybe not "allowed" but they may be concerned about unauthorized entries, like this one. 

 

[Mike K.]

Aren't virtually all nuclear weapons storage sites known? There are several along the Alaskan Panhandle and no doubt quite a lot in Washington. That's all close enough to us if you ask me

[VicHockeyFan]

Aren't virtually all nuclear weapons storage sites known? There are several along the Alaskan Panhandle and no doubt quite a lot in Washington. That's all close enough to us if you ask me

 

But you have to put aside the notion that one of them will rust, age, or rupture and blow up with full force in the place where it is now.  The fact is, it's very, very, very hard to get a nuclear weapon to detonate properly, it won't happen by mistake, unless the missile is launched as normally intended.

[Mike K.]

I'm thinking of them more as military targets and not as self-imploding warheads. I mean as an enemy would it be easier for you to target someone's nuclear silos or whatnot?

[VicHockeyFan]

I'm thinking of them more as military targets and not as self-imploding warheads. I mean as an enemy would it be easier for you to target someone's nuclear silos or whatnot?

 

I think once you've devolved into an all-out nuclear war, you might as well hit New York, Washington, Houston etc.

[Mike K.]

So here's something I heard today related to US nuclear weapons.

 

Apparently at any moment in time there are US Air Force bombers carrying nuclear warheads en-route from Washington state to the Arctic Circle with the directive to bomb Russia. These bombers, if they DO NOT receive word from command to terminate their mission, will maintain their course and bomb predetermined targets. Every such mission to-date, obviously, has received that call to terminate the mission.

 

Once the call to terminate is received the bomber turns around and flies back to an AFB in Washington. Before this jet returns another such mission is scrambled and there is never any one time where these bombers (and potentially other bombers from other US AFB's) are not in the air engaged in a real-time mission to bomb real targets.

 

Any validity to this? 

[VicHockeyFan]

So here's something I heard today related to US nuclear weapons.

 

Apparently at any moment in time there are US Air Force bombers carrying nuclear warheads en-route from Washington state to the Arctic Circle with the directive to bomb Russia. These bombers, if they DO NOT receive word from command to terminate their mission, will maintain their course and bomb predetermined targets. Every such mission to-date, obviously, has received that call to terminate the mission.

 

Once the call to terminate is received the bomber turns around and flies back to an AFB in Washington. Before this jet returns another such mission is scrambled and there is never any one time where these bombers (and potentially other bombers from other US AFB's) are not in the air engaged in a real-time mission to bomb real targets.

 

Any validity to this? 

 

I think that's the old way.  Now submarines are the missile threat.  They can stay underwater for months and can't be tracked.

[phx]

Aren't virtually all nuclear weapons storage sites known? There are several along the Alaskan Panhandle and no doubt quite a lot in Washington. That's all close enough to us if you ask me

Why would there be nuclear weapons stored along the Alaska panhandle?

 

The Americans usually keep quite tight control of their nuclear weapons.

[VicHockeyFan]

Why would there be nuclear weapons stored along the Alaska panhandle?

 

 

 

Not stored, they are in silos and ready to fire.  Like at Fort Greely (although it's not the panhandle).

 

But again, the nuclear subs are where the good missiles are ready to go, nobody knows where the "launch sites" are, so it's harder to counter.  Theoretically, a nuclear sub never has to surface, except for food for the crew, and fuel rod replenishment every 15 years.

[AllseeingEye]

I think that's the old way.  Now submarines are the missile threat.  They can stay underwater for months and can't be tracked.

Its actually both: US nuclear bombers continue to patrol close to Russian airspace much as they did during the Cold War. The only difference is the frequency of the patrols and the fact they no longer fall under the auspices of the old Strategic Air Command which was disbanded in the early 1990's, in favor of its successor organization, the USAF Global Strike Command (AFGSC). The latter still controls somewhere in the range of ~ 100 nuclear armed aircraft. These are mostly B-52's however also include the newer B-1 and B-2 stealth bombers. And although both the US and Russia have reduced their ballistic missile submarine fleets post the fall of the USSR, both obviously remain in sufficient numbers as to assure devastating results should they ever launch their payloads. The only real question now is how many warheads on each side are now pointing in the direction of Beijing........

[Mike K.]

Beijing, wow...

 

Btw, the first recorded nuclear weapons loss in history occurred north of Prince Rupert when an American bomber jettisoned it's nuclear payload before crashing into a mountainside.

[Bingo]

Beijing, wow...

 

Btw, the first recorded nuclear weapons loss in history occurred north of Prince Rupert when an American bomber jettisoned it's nuclear payload before crashing into a mountainside.

North of Smithers. There are some remains of the turret machine gun in the museum there. The bomb was reportedly jettisoned over the ocean near Prince Rupert, the crew bailed, and the captain when down with the plane...or something  like that.

[VicHockeyFan]

Beijing, wow...

 

Btw, the first recorded nuclear weapons loss in history occurred north of Prince Rupert when an American bomber jettisoned it's nuclear payload before crashing into a mountainside.

 

Again, do you know what precision is required to get a nuke to blow up properly?  It's very, very hard.  Those bombs are so precision engineered for the correct chain reaction, it's nuts.  Old, damaged bombs just don't work.

[Mike K.]

I have no idea. All I know is that's where the first nuclear weapons loss in history occurred.

@Bingo, you mean Stewart, not Smithers? Stewart is more or less where the plane eventually crashed and that's still the town's claim to fame. Smithers is quite a ways to the east. Some more info http://www.stewartbc.com/b36bomer.htm

A bomber also crashed near Nitinaht Lake (west of Cowichan Lake) in WWII. I don't know if it was US or Canadian but I assume it was a US plane. Remnants of the plane are still in place and you can climb up to the crash site if you work a little at zeroing in on the location.

[Bingo]

I have no idea. All I know is that's where the first nuclear weapons loss in history occurred.

@Bingo, you mean Stewart, not Smithers? Stewart is more or less where the plane eventually crashed and that's still the town's claim to fame. Smithers is quite a ways to the east. Some more info http://www.stewartbc.com/b36bomer.htm

A bomber also crashed near Nitinaht Lake (west of Cowichan Lake) in WWII. I don't know if it was US or Canadian but I assume it was a US plane. Remnants of the plane are still in place and you can climb up to the crash site if you work a little at zeroing in on the location.

 

It crashed about 80 miles east of Stewart, and about 100 miles northwest of Smithers. 

The gun turret is in the Bulkley Valley Museum, in Smithers.

 

read more ; http://www.bcnorth.c...my/b36/b362.htm

 

http://bvmuseum.com/

 

 

[LJ]

So here's something I heard today related to US nuclear weapons.

 

Apparently at any moment in time there are US Air Force bombers carrying nuclear warheads en-route from Washington state to the Arctic Circle with the directive to bomb Russia. These bombers, if they DO NOT receive word from command to terminate their mission, will maintain their course and bomb predetermined targets. Every such mission to-date, obviously, has received that call to terminate the mission.

 

Once the call to terminate is received the bomber turns around and flies back to an AFB in Washington. Before this jet returns another such mission is scrambled and there is never any one time where these bombers (and potentially other bombers from other US AFB's) are not in the air engaged in a real-time mission to bomb real targets.

 

Any validity to this? 

They actually fly out of Minot ND on regular patrols, but I certainly can't vouch for the validity of the "go" order. I would doubt it though. Any nuclear strike order has to be personally issued and verified by the President and I doubt he is sitting around doing that all day.

[AllseeingEye]

They actually fly out of Minot ND on regular patrols, but I certainly can't vouch for the validity of the "go" order. I would doubt it though. Any nuclear strike order has to be personally issued and verified by the President and I doubt he is sitting around doing that all day.

The patrols originate from several bases of which Minot is but one; there are also certain explicit protocols in place that, in exceptional circumstances, do permit a nuclear launch in the absence of presidential authority and in any event the President is actually positioned to give the green light 7x24x365 since the nuclear football (the briefcase with the verification and launch codes, which are changed daily) is literally handcuffed to and carried by a military attaché who is assigned to the President on a full time basis. That individual is probably never more than a few paces from the President at any time, night or day, goes where he goes, and travels where he travels.

[HB]

I have no idea. All I know is that's where the first nuclear weapons loss in history occurred.

@Bingo, you mean Stewart, not Smithers? Stewart is more or less where the plane eventually crashed and that's still the town's claim to fame. Smithers is quite a ways to the east. Some more info http://www.stewartbc.com/b36bomer.htm

A bomber also crashed near Nitinaht Lake (west of Cowichan Lake) in WWII. I don't know if it was US or Canadian but I assume it was a US plane. Remnants of the plane are still in place and you can climb up to the crash site if you work a little at zeroing in on the location.

You can actually drive right to the site at the summit of Mt Bolduc