August 24/ September 28, 2007
wevigilo August 19th, 2007
LOCKHEED MANAGES
SANDIA’S ATTRIBUTES
TO GIVE ALL TRIDENTS
A NEW SET OF NUKES
Shortly after the Trinity test in New Mexico, Manhattan Project Director J. Robert Oppenheimer in late July 1945 started Z Division as the ordinance design, testing, and assembly arm of Los Alamos Laboratory. Z Division quickly outgrew its crowded space so a directive was issued authorizing a new base arbitrarily referred to as the “Sandia Base.” That new base turned out to be near Oxnard Air Field just outside Albuquerque. A facility was constructed and the move was completed in January 1947. In 1949 Z Division became a separate branch of Los Alamo and was renamed Sandia Laboratory.
Los Alamos Laboratory was managed by the University of California but the university was uncomfortable with the engineering part of nuclear weapons. Western Electric Company of AT&T took over management of Sandia Laboratory through a wholly-owned private entity called Sandia Corporation. Sandia Laboratory became Sandia National Laboratory in 1979 with facilities in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Livermore, California; Tonopah, Nevada; and Kauai, Hawaii. Since its inception, Sandia National Laboratory has worked with either Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory or Los Alamos National Laboratory to design and build every US nuclear bomb.
In 1993 Martin Marietta was awarded the franchise to manage Sandia National Laboratory. Two years later that company merged with Lockheed to become Lockheed Martin. Sandia Corporation (not to be confused with Sandia National Laboratory) is now a wholly-owned private company of Lockheed Martin Corporation whose purpose is to manage the laboratory..
For several years, under the George W. Bush administration, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory had been competing on the design concept for a new Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) for America’s nuclear arsenal, starting replacement with the sea-based leg. Of course Sandia would work with whichever laboratory won the design concept.
On 2 March 2007 the US Department of Energy announced that Lawrence Livermore and Sandia National Laboratories were the winning team. They will now put together a detailed project plan and cost estimate for development and production. Lawrence Livermore will work on the nuclear explosive package. Sandia will be responsible for items like the Arming & Fusing Device and the Neutron Generator. Through its design function, Sandia will also assure compatibility with Trident submarine-launched ballistic missiles. The US Navy will head up the overall project.
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REFERENCES
“Exhibits: End of War; Beginning of a Laboratory, Z Division, 1945-1949,” Sandia History program & Corporate Archives, last modified 11 October 2004. Available at http://www.sandia.gov/recordsmgmt/zdiv.html
Press Release; “Design Selected for Reliable Replacement Warhead,” National Nuclear Security Administration of the Department of Energy, 2 March 2007. Available at http://www.nnsa.doe.gov/docs/newsreleases/2007/PR_2007-03-02_NA-07-06.htm