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Nuclear Modernization

Sandia Completes B61-12 Gravity Bomb Flight Test On F-35, Lab Says

Sarah Salem

Friday, November 14th, 2025

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Sandia Completes B61-12 Gravity Bomb Flight Test On F-35, Lab Says

Two B61-12 joint test assemblies loaded on an F-35 aircraft for a flight test on Aug. 19. (Photo by Craig Fritz)

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Sandia National Laboratories announced last Thursday it conducted a flight test of the B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb on an F-35 aircraft in August. The flight tests took place at Tonopah Test Range in Nevada, with aircraft generation from Hill AFB, Utah, a press release from Sandia said. The August tests “yielded positive results” as F-35 aircraft carried and dropped the nuclear gravity bomb “successfully,” and were the only B61-12 stockpile flight tests to include…

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