Tubes on the go?

[OO1]

 

And they are still used by the Russian military.

As well as USA Military, as least in our nukes.

 

- current operational nukes in the USA  have solid state systems components since the late 60's --whether they fail or not , the components are changed as their end of life is reached - generally 5 years -

 

-as components age and degrade , and NOS components cannot be used due to their age , a newly manufactured certified part is required ,   and the USA has been out of the Vaccum tubes manufacturing since the late 60's -

Edited April 6, 2015 by Randyh

[Travis In Austin]

The radar fuse in the B-61 bomb uses a vacum tube. The airforce requested funding back in 2009 to update and replace those bombs. That funding was denied. B-61 bombs, and yes, that is an old design that has been around forever, but they are still in use, they still count in our total for START, and they still have a vacuum tube in them.

Nothing gets updated or changed on a nuke without funding and approval. The military doesn't just update nukes when they feel like it. They are all subject to treaty, inspection, and if changed, verification by the other guys.

Technically, they also all use a Krytron, a vacuum tube switch used to trigger the reaction, bit I wasn't counting that.

[OO1]

ok - lets be precise by looking at the numbers :  

 

a) 1 % of around 3150 B1 (plus or minus ) were made with tubes -  99% solid state- the B1 with tubes were the first units deployed in the early sixties -they  have been out of operation since the late sixties -

 

-the total production of B1 accounts for START due to the warheads -2950 B1 ( plus or minus ) are out of commission  -

 

c)-there are only 200 B1 in service in 2015 including spares -they are the latest generations of the B1 solid state  -

 

d) the 2950 Obsolete B1 were considered for a return to active duty - a remanufacturing process is needed  , however ,  funding was denied -

Edited April 7, 2015 by Randyh

[muel]

Not to worry... if the military needs any tubes they will just come knock on Craigs door.  Have to get past the dog though.

[OO1]

Not to worry... if the military needs any tubes they will just come knock on Craigs door.  Have to get past the dog though.

for sure

[Travis In Austin]

It is the B-61, NATO has 200 of them, accordingly to the USAF General who testified in Congress in'09, and he told Congress they had vacuum tubes in them. I distinctly remember that he brought tubes to the hearing to show the committee what some of our nukes had in them.

Watching C-span I pick up all of this crazy stuff. Now I admit you cannot trust a general testifying before Congress when he says the nuke program he is in charge of is outdated, but I thought he would be somewhat accurrate when he testified that some of our gravity bombs had a vacuum tube in them. I am pretty sure he was asked if they were in current inventory and he responded that they were a small fraction of the total and they were in Europe as part of NATO.

But it was six years ago so I am probably wrong on that.

[NOSValves]

Damn tubes they are so obsolete.......

[Travis In Austin]

I thought my memory was failing me, here is the government report on refurbishment of the B-61 nuclear bomb. They are looking to have their first refurbished bomb unit completed in 2020. This is the current report on their website today.

http://nnsa.energy.gov/ourmission/managingthestockpile/lifeextensionprograms

Another article from the Washington Post talking about how they take vacuum tubes from a retired B 61 and use it in another one.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/the-b61-bomb-a-case-study-in-needs-and-costs/2012/09/16/494aff00-f831-11e1-8253-3f495ae70650_story.html

The quote from the 2012 article:

"They cannibalize spare B61s for parts, such as the vacuum tubes needed to keep the radars working on active bombs. If they don’t have spares, they track down outdated machines to manufacture the components themselves, as they did when they bought a machine to produce integrated circuits."

We will have vacuum tubes is the B-61 until at least 2020.

[NOSValves]

Want to see first hand what happened to the USSR check this website for thier super high quality and superb style....

 

http://www.soviet-power.com/

Edited April 8, 2015 by NOSValves

[NOSValves]

ok - lets be precise by looking at the numbers :  

 

a) 1 % of around 3150 B1 (plus or minus ) were made with tubes -  99% solid state- the B1 with tubes were the first units deployed in the early sixties -they  have been out of operation since the late sixties -

 

-the total production of B1 accounts for START due to the warheads -2950 B1 ( plus or minus ) are out of commission  -

 

c)-there are only 200 B1 in service in 2015 including spares -they are the latest generations of the B1 solid state  -

 

d) the 2950 Obsolete B1 were considered for a return to active duty - a remanufacturing process is needed  , however ,  funding was denied -

 

 

 I love how you post up this stuff but seem to repeatedly leave out the links to back up your points...

Edited April 8, 2015 by NOSValves

[Travis In Austin]

Want to see first hand what happened to the USSR check this website for thier super high quality and superb style....

 

http://www.soviet-power.com/

The cameras are cool, but you probably cannot get film for them anymore. Have to find a surplus source for 35mm film. But they still seem to have photo services at the drug store, but no tube checkers. There was a tube checker in every drug store when I was growing up, wonder where they all went?

[NOSValves]

You know I have often wondered where all those in store tube testers went...I mean its easy to find vintage field tube testers, but the store front jobs I have never seen one. I'd love to have one in my shop. I bought a nice old Wurlitzer juke box that I have to restore for my shop... of course it might take total retirement for me to find time to do it.

[boxerjake]

Hey Craig .... I bought 3 vintage tube testers from a mall that was being demolished .

 

I have fond memories heading to the local mall with my dad in the late 60's on the weekend to test the audio tubes from our TV set

 

I sold 2 of them on E-bay but still have one left , i'll check with my dad and see if he still wants to store it in his garage , if not it's all yours .

 

Then again , it would probably cost more then it's worth to ship from alberta to you ... remember the rodeo we had shipping the Mark III'S ?

[Travis In Austin]

You know I have often wondered where all those in store tube testers went...I mean its easy to find vintage field tube testers, but the store front jobs I have never seen one. I'd love to have one in my shop. I bought a nice old Wurlitzer juke box that I have to restore for my shop... of course it might take total retirement for me to find time to do it.

I was thinking the same thing, be cool to have. I have never seen on since. You dialed up the tube number, it told you the socket number, as I recall, it was a very simple meter. Red yellow and green. Lockable cabinet below to store the tubes in. A jobber came by once a month or so to restock the tubes.

[Travis In Austin]

This is What I remember. Two trays, one for those to be tested, one for those you tested.

[OO1]

very nice old tube tester

Edited April 8, 2015 by Randyh

[OO1]

I thought my memory was failing me, here is the government report on refurbishment of the B-61 nuclear bomb. They are looking to have their first refurbished bomb unit completed in 2020. This is the current report on their website today.

http://nnsa.energy.gov/ourmission/managingthestockpile/lifeextensionprograms

Another article from the Washington Post talking about how they take vacuum tubes from a retired B 61 and use it in another one.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/the-b61-bomb-a-case-study-in-needs-and-costs/2012/09/16/494aff00-f831-11e1-8253-3f495ae70650_story.html

The quote from the 2012 article:

"They cannibalize spare B61s for parts, such as the vacuum tubes needed to keep the radars working on active bombs. If they don’t have spares, they track down outdated machines to manufacture the components themselves, as they did when they bought a machine to produce integrated circuits."

We will have vacuum tubes is the B-61 until at least 2020.

you are very funny ,  a  300kton yield B61 built with junked parts , cannibalized from defective units with vaccum tubes till 2020 -

Edited April 8, 2015 by Randyh

[OO1]

 

ok - lets be precise by looking at the numbers :  

 

a) 1 % of around 3150 B1 (plus or minus ) were made with tubes -  99% solid state- the B1 with tubes were the first units deployed in the early sixties -they  have been out of operation since the late sixties -

 

-the total production of B1 accounts for START due to the warheads -2950 B1 ( plus or minus ) are out of commission  -

 

c)-there are only 200 B1 in service in 2015 including spares -they are the latest generations of the B1 solid state  -

 

d) the 2950 Obsolete B1 were considered for a return to active duty - a remanufacturing process is needed  , however ,  funding was denied -

 

 

 I love how you post up this stuff but seem to repeatedly leave out the links to back up your points...

 

do a google search -

Edited April 8, 2015 by Randyh

[Travis In Austin]

I thought my memory was failing me, here is the government report on refurbishment of the B-61 nuclear bomb. They are looking to have their first refurbished bomb unit completed in 2020. This is the current report on their website today.http://nnsa.energy.gov/ourmission/managingthestockpile/lifeextensionprograms

Another article from the Washington Post talking about how they take vacuum tubes from a retired B 61 and use it in another one.http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/the-b61-bomb-a-case-study-in-needs-and-costs/2012/09/16/494aff00-f831-11e1-8253-3f495ae70650_story.html

The quote from the 2012 article:

"They cannibalize spare B61s for parts, such as the vacuum tubes needed to keep the radars working on active bombs. If they don’t have spares, they track down outdated machines to manufacture the components themselves, as they did when they bought a machine to produce integrated circuits."

We will have vacuum tubes is the B-61 until at least 2020.

you are very funny ,  a  300kton yield B61 built with junked parts , cannibalized from defective units with vaccum tubes till 2020 -

The 340KT is the 7 variant, the "strategic" model, it was updated as part of a six year refurbishment that was completed by NSAA at the end of 2008. They used tubes up until then. There are about 180 B-61s, including Variant 3 and 4s all over Europe. This is the "tactical" version and they are actively deployed and they all have tubes. Those will be replaced starting in 2020s when the Life Extended bombs are completed.

This is what the General told the WSJ about tubes in nukes in '09:

"We've done a pretty good job of maintaining our delivery platforms," the general says, by which he means submarines, intercontinental ballistic missiles and intercontinental bombers. But nuclear warheads are a different story. They are Cold War legacies, he says, "designed for about a 15- to 20-year life." That worked fine back when "we had a very robust infrastructure . . . that replenished those families of weapons at regular intervals." Now, however, "they're all older than 20 years . . . . The analogy would be trying to extend the life of your '57 Chevrolet into the 21st century."

Gen. Chilton pulls out a prop to illustrate his point: a glass bulb about two inches high. "This is a component of a V-61" nuclear warhead, he says. It was in "one of our gravity weapons" -- a weapon from the 1950s and '60s that is still in the U.S. arsenal. He pauses to look around the Journal's conference table. "I remember what these things were for. I bet you don't. It's a vacuum tube. My father used to take these out of the television set in the 1950s and '60s down to the local supermarket to test them and replace them."

And here comes the punch line: "This is the technology that we have . . . today." The technology in the weapons the U.S. relies on for its nuclear deterrent dates back to before many of the people in the room were born.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122731227702749413

It costs a lot of money to upgrade, extend the life of nukes, and a lot of time.

I think the only reason 3 and 4s were not upgraded is they thought they were going to be replaced, but the funding got cut for that in '09. Then the rest get upgraded, from chips that are currently used in microwave ovens to whatever we have advanced to that has proven reliability.