New robots, new tricks
Bomb squad teams from coast to coast challenged their emergency preparedness skills during Sandia’s five-day Robot Rodeo and Capability Exercise last month. Twelve scenarios involving vehicles, simulated terrorist events and timed obstacles were set up from May 13-17 around Sandia and Kirtland Air Force Base for the military and civilian teams.
A day in the life of Sandia — 70 years and counting
To mark the 70th anniversary of President Truman’s letter that inspired Sandia to “… exceptional service,” Lab News photographer Randy Montoya spent a full day chronicling the people and work that make the Labs hum from sun up to sundown.
Training to defend
Sandia’s Security Police Officers go through intense weapons training annually to protect members of the workforce from any possible threat, and that training recently took place at Sandia.
Annual Sandia simulation strengthens emergency response
Scores of Labs employees in Albuquerque, joined by outside emergency response personnel, were immersed in a simulated crisis April 17 as part of the annual emergency management full-scale exercise.
Process modernization
Modernizing the nuclear deterrent also means modernizing the weapon development process. To this end, Sandia and the Kansas City National Security Campus have established the New Product Introduction initiative. By integrating lessons learned from past weapons programs and industry best practices into the existing process, NPI can help enhance the security, reliability and performance of the nation’s nuclear deterrent.
W80-4 Life Extension Program achieves major milestone
The W80-4 Life Extension Program achieved a major milestone last month when the joint DOE and Department of Defense Nuclear Weapons Council approved the program to enter Phase 6.3, development engineering. The approval follows multiple briefings by the W80-4 leadership team to program stakeholders at NNSA headquarters and the Pentagon.
CALLING GAMERS: Future nuclear security experts train with Sandia-designed game
The next generation of nuclear security experts is being trained in an exciting new way — by playing a first-of-its-kind war game Sandia helped design. The game, Signal, which goes online this spring after its launch as a board game last year, offers players a chance to make strategic decisions using modern political, economic and military tools.
Robotics system demilitarizes 700,000 Army submunitions
More than 700,000 Multiple Launch Rocket System submunitions have been demilitarized since the Army started using an automated, nine-robot system conceptualized, built and programmed by Sandia engineers.
When winter weather hits
When winter weather strikes, here's where to go for information about Sandia work delays or closures.
EXERCISE: Drone attack, pipe bomb put Sandia to the test
Sandia/California’s medical staff and Protective Force were put to the test last month during a simulated attack involving a drone and a pipe bomb. The exercise also tested the emergency alert system used to notify members of the workforce.