MIL-STD-1822A(USAF)
radiation exposure that a bomb will see when on the ground and when carried on the aircraft. When a new aircraft has a requirement to carry nuclear weapons, nuclear environments must be analyzed in accordance with the aircraft's operational processes and procedures to verify that nuclear effects environments are below the weapon's STS limits. Aircraft with established nuclear weapon capability may have new equipment added to its store list. This new equipment must be assessed to assure that it meets or exceeds survivability levels. Predictions of the nuclear effects environments expected on new or existing aircraft are usually generated by the DoD (by either a contractor or by AFNWC/NCA) based on parameters such as the number, types, yields, height of bursts (HOBs), and CEPs of weapons expected to detonate near the Air Force Base under attack. SNL engineers may also perform some worst case calculations based on these same parameters. If nuclear effects environment predictions are more than
25% of the inherent survivability design limits of nuclear compatible equipment, testing of the equipment should be conducted to determine the design has margin.
4.3.1.7 Mechanical fit tests.
Mechanical fit tests are performed to verify the information given in the MICDs. SNL supplied CTUs are loaded on operational aircraft and measurements are made of the spaces and dimensions that are critical to bomb/aircraft compatibility. These dimensions are compared with those given in the MICDs. The mechanical fit tests are usually performed at the same time as the five-aircraft AMAC electrical interface tests to get a measure of variability; preliminary fit tests are performed earlier to uncover incompatibilities in time for them to be corrected.
4.3.1.8 Vibration Fly-Around (VFA) tests and analysis.
The purpose of the VFA tests and analyses is to determine the vibration environment imposed on components inside the bombs when carried on the aircraft. The aircraft with the VFA test unit loaded in the configurations of concern, is flown at various mach number-altitude points within the desired flight envelope that, by analysis, have been determined to provide the worst- case vibration environments to the weapon. The vibration spectra obtained from this flight testing must be lower than the spectra for which the weapon components were originally designed in order for the aircraft to be judged as compatible with a particular bomb. The VFA test units are supplied by SNL. They may use either air-to-ground telemetry or an onboard recorder to acquire data. The VFA test units duplicate the War Reserve (WR) mass properties and will have the real components or mass mockups of the components of concern installed. The components of concern are instrumented with accelerometers. The aircraft are supplied and operated by the DoD; the tests are staged out of a DoD test base and flown over a DoD or DoE test range.
4.3.1.9 Non-combat delivery vehicle test and analysis.
Non-Combat vehicles are tested to verify that the vehicle does not allow environmental inputs (e.g. for example, shock or vibration) into the weapon that may be detrimental to the weapon's nuclear surety. The tests will use representative test assets of sufficient high fidelity to ensure capturing realistic environmental data. The mechanical compatibility test shall also include monitoring and analysis of static and dynamic inputs to the weapon produced and transferred by the Non-Combat Delivery Vehicles. Some common environments per the STS are transportation loads and mate and de-mate loads.
4.3.1.10 Weapon separation tests and analysis.
The purpose of this work is to assure the safe release of weapons from aircraft throughout the flight envelope as described in the Concept of Operations (CONOPs). The test units are generally Bomb Dummy Units (BDUs) supplied by the DoD, but may be weapon development units supplied by SNL. The data acquired in the weapon separation tests is usually in the form
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