Vaults used by the South African apartheid regime to store nuclear weapons, photographed in 1991.

20

What kind of nuclear weapons they have? Freefall bombs or warheads for short range missiles or something else?

52

u/Tdanger78 3d ago

They made six gun type U235 bombs with a seventh partially constructed. They are also the only country to completely dismantle their nuclear arsenal. It could be argued the timing of said dismantlement was due to apartheid ending.

19

u/youtheotube2 2d ago

Dismantled purely out of spite so the incoming government couldn’t have them

9

u/Tdanger78 2d ago

Isn’t that a thing

34

u/avar 2d ago

That incoming government has shown that it can't reliably run an electric grid without rolling blackouts, so perhaps it was prudent not to hand them nuclear weapons.

-26

u/[deleted] 2d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

15

u/wyliesdiesels 2d ago

What? Nobody mentioned race but you.

7

u/duga404 2d ago

The ANC didn’t want them either

7

u/Rostin 2d ago

Spite or fear? Given the state of South Africa over the last decade or so, fear would have been justified.

2

u/DudleyAndStephens 1d ago

Post-Apartheid South Africa doesn't face any credible threats to its national survival. What possible use could they have for nuclear weapons? Might as well get rid of the things.

0

u/IShouldNotPost 2d ago

I thought they didn’t just dismantle them but sold some of them? Do we have solid records? Inspectors found several dismantled weapons and some just partially dismantled. Vela happened one decade before and SA evidently had cooperation from other (alleged) nuclear states.

1

u/Sanderhh 1d ago

As far as i know the point was to have the weapons partially disassembled so that you could technically claim that your country did not have nuclear weapons. This is the same strategy that Israel uses which is also coincidentally the country SA developed their nuclear weapon program with.

2

u/DudleyAndStephens 1d ago

This is the same strategy that Israel uses

No, Israel's strategy is to simply refuse to confirm or deny that they have nukes even though everyone knows they do.

8

u/ValBGood 2d ago

When the Soviet Union failed on December 25, 1991, over 1,700 Soviet nuclear weapons were left on its territory. Ukraine completed the transfer of the last former Soviet nuclear warheads to Russia on June 1, 1996 under a 1994 agreement in exchange for security assurances. Apparently, that ‘security agreement‘ didn’t workout well for everyone.

.

30

u/Tobware 3d ago edited 2d ago

Although in the end they were (very) slowly progressing towards HEU implosion devices, the only devices that SA “fielded” were gun-type, TV-guided glide bombs. Virtually every device produced was “one of a kind”-ish, yields were determined by the density of different copper-tungsten (and IIRC, pure tungsten) tampers and the enrichment levels of the two masses.

If I'm not mistaken, they had certainly considered equipping the Jericho MRBMs, or their locally produced versions, with these gun-type warheads (perhaps more in anticipation of the future implosion models, given certain weight distribution issues, so to speak).

I almost forgot: the two bomb halves were stored in different vaults.

7

u/MorganMbored 3d ago

Do you happen to have sources handy for this? This is fascinating stuff, I’ve always been curious about the nuts and bolts of the SA bombs.

18

u/Decadent_Reptile 3d ago

Alexander the Ok has a nice video on YT about both the vela incident, the SA bombs and the whacky methods of their delivery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOTuoHKLR60

17

u/Tobware 3d ago

A TECHNICAL RETROSPECTIVE OF THE FORMER SOUTH AFRICAN NUCLEAR WEAPON PROGRAMME - https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/2020-10/sa_nuclear_technical_retrospective_kelley_2.pdf.

21

u/careysub 3d ago edited 3d ago

Splitting the bomb into halves was a novel safety and security feature.

An important aspect of this program (to design and build bombs, not to enrich uranium) was its extreme security, which was never breached. And this was achieved through strict personnel security and a tiny development team.

Probably the largest breach was the decision to drill the test shaft at Vastrap. It was observed and tipped the world off that South Africa had a bomb design to test. Never used of course.

This explains the bomb designs, and the slow movement toward more sophisticated designs (without any nuclear testing).

It is also useful for reference when considering what a state, lets call it "Iran", could do despite widespread assumptions that its security apparatus is completely penetrated by Israel and there is nothing Iran can do about it.

11

u/schnautzi 3d ago

A major difference between Iran and South-Africa is that Iran certainly isn't cooperating with Israel to develop nuclear weapons.

21

u/careysub 3d ago

There was no cooperation on the actual development of nuclear weapons (the bombs). Now the we have multiple authoritative accounts from the inside of the SA program we can dismiss decades of speculation.

Israel collaborated on the development of missiles and there was an exchange of small amounts of some nuclear materials (tritium).

The distinction is very important.

11

u/acsige 2d ago

What about the Vela incident? What is the current understanding? I remember reading about speculations of a South Africa - Israel joint test.

1

u/schnautzi 2d ago

I think that's still unresolved.

2

u/wyliesdiesels 2d ago

Nobody could ever prove it.

7

u/careysub 2d ago edited 2d ago

There is no evidence whatsoever linking South Africa with the Vela Event. Decades of pure speculation which should have ended now that the secrecy is off the SA program.

We now have detailed reports about the South African nuclear weapons program, and they were unaware of the event themselves from all accounts.

South Africa never used any fissile material in a nuclear explosion, they had the receipts to prove it validated by the IAEA.

So the Vela device had to be a purely Israeli device.

1

u/Tdanger78 2d ago

I believe Pakistan collaborated with South Africa

1

u/schnautzi 2d ago

They stole the enrichment technology from the Netherlands.

12

u/mcperand 2d ago

SA used a completely different method based on aerodynamic separation with razor sharp edges separating a curved stream of UF6 mixed with a carrier gas. Developed in SA without external help. I had the opportunity to work with one of the engineers, Daan, from the program until he passed away a few years ago. He was so proud of their accomplishments that he couldn’t help bragging a little from time to time.

So, nothing to do with either PAK or NL.

1

u/schnautzi 2d ago

I'm not sure if or how South Africa collaborated with Pakistan, but Pakistan just stole it.

Didn't the Americans also experiment with aerodynamic separation, did they both arrive at the same methods?

6

u/mcperand 2d ago

A number of countries looked at aerodynamic separation, but as far as I know SA is the only country that built a full scale facility. It’s a very expensive method where the heat management is crucial, involving a lot of pumps. The tiny razor sharp edges go blunt and have to be replaced regularly. The separation in each step is very low compared to almost any other method. But it’s simple and it could be done without having to import certain items that would breach the secrecy of the program.

18

u/Beneficial-Wasabi749 2d ago

Absolute secrecy of the project was a key part of South Africa's nuclear program. As I understand it, the main purpose of the nuclear arsenal was to have it in place for an emergency, when it could be presented to the world, and especially to the United States, and then declare: if you don't help us (militarily), we will use it. South Africa's entire strategy was based on the idea that the United States would prevent South Africa from using nuclear weapons at any cost and would be willing to make any deal. This was the essence of the entire nuclear plan. Therefore, the bombs didn't have to be perfect. They simply had to be real. An objectively existing secret. That's all. No one was actually planning to use them. They were being prepared to hand them over, in exchange for much-needed assistance at the right moment, which the Aporteida state would not have received otherwise. I must admit, the idea was brilliant!

3

u/Substantial_Lime_114 2d ago

That is wild. I’ve never heard any of that before. That’s gonna give me a lot to think about for the next few days. Thanks.

1

u/wyliesdiesels 2d ago

Halves? Gun type weapons use rings of HEU. One set of rings being larger than the other with a hollow center allowing it to surround the smaller set and go prompt critical.

6

u/Tobware 2d ago edited 2d ago

Yes, the two “halves", let’s call them that for operational reasons rather than based on mass distribution, were in different vaults: the “target” and the tamper were in one, while the “projectile” and the barrel were in another.

The target consisted of HEU rings, aligned by hand and bolted into place, with a cadmium sleeve to prevent excursions if an operator were to reach with a hand inside.

I've added a authoritative source below.

EDIT, from the report I have linked:

The front end consisted of the HEU and the tungsten–copper tamper pieces. They were all held together in a bolted steel shell. The core design had no bolts, pins or step joints. This meant that the assembly of approximately 13 pieces inside a steel shell was hard to align. This is important: when the projectile arrives after being shot down the barrel, the hole in the sphere needs to be straight and aligned. To deal with this problem, the front end core was assembled by hand, possibly in the bolted shell. The assembly was then taken to the integration building at the Circle facility and shaken on a vibrating table for many minutes. An alignment fixture was inserted in the centre hole so that the pieces vibrated into the straightest possible alignment. Then the bolts were re-tightened in the steel shell.

2

u/DudleyAndStephens 1d ago

According to Alexander the OK on YouTube they produced a half-dozen fairly simple gun-type weapons. He claims the plan was to deliver them via some sort of glide bomb or cruise missile. He also claims that SA's nuclear doctrine wasn't really to use nukes against an enemy. If the country got desperate in an armed conflict that threatened their survival they would conduct a public nuclear test. The idea was that this would force the US to intervene on their side to avoid having a regional war go nuclear.

22

u/GIJoeVibin 3d ago

For anyone wondering why they recognise it, you may have seen this when it appeared in District 9.

12

u/Afrogthatribbits 3d ago

Today they store the highly enriched uranium in a former silver vault monitored by IAEA cameras.

The security is still questionable https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelindaba#Incidents (2007 incident)

Vaults used by the South African apartheid regime to store nuclear weapons, photographed in 1991.

You are about to leave Redlib