> a B-52 broke up while flying over Goldsboro, North Carolina, dropping two nuclear weapons to the ground. One was relatively undamaged after its parachute deployed successfully, but a later examination revealed that three out of four safeguards had failed
Okay, that's scary. I can just imagine someone looking to improve efficiency or cost savings thinking that four safeguards is over-engineered.
My understanding is that all of the safeguards worked as intended and characterizing them as 'failed' is a bit unfair.
The three that "failed" were designed to prevent the bomb exploding on the runway (before take-off), on the plane (before being dropped), or in the air (before the plane could escape).
Since this event involved a plane taking off, dropping the bomb, and the bomb parachuting to the ground - it was largely indistinguishable (to the bomb) from an actual intentional event. Only the cockpit Safe/Air/Ground selector prevented detonation.
Note that the cockpit selector did fail in other incidents, arming bombs while still in the 'safe' position due to a short circuit elsewhere.
Sam Harris podcast episode 210[1] had guests William J. Perry, former Secretary of Defense and founding member of Nuclear Threat Initiative[2], and his grand daughter Lisa Perry, Communications Director at At The Brink[3], to talk in large part about that scary aspect of nuclear weapons, and how an accidental nuclear war is more likely than a deliberate one.
Okay, that's scary. I can just imagine someone looking to improve efficiency or cost savings thinking that four safeguards is over-engineered.