Carl—I'll most certainly take a look at the F-111B nose. The biggest worry I'd have is being able to make a new part's "attach point" fit properly, without a base model to work from, but with enough data this probably isn't insurmountable.
Back to the matter of South Africa’s nuke/s, it’s been a few years since I last tackled the matter (for X-Plane), and since then comparatively quite a bit more fascinating technical information has come out.
To that end, I’ve produced:
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”Melba”—a “zeroth” generation nuclear weapon!
An interesting story behind this one; for many years, a South African-sourced photo has been circulating of several partial bomb casings stored at Pretoria’s nuclear weapon production facility.
However, later sources claim that these “bomb casings” weren’t from any of SA’s production nuclear weapons, which were smaller and fewer in number. However, my own size estimates of the pictured casings do match up quite closely with the diameter of the first test device designed and built around 1977, at least formally under the auspices of a PNE scheme. And somewhat resembles the simple illustration of the test device I’ve found, created by one of the members of the nuclear program.
The test would later be cancelled (in no small part to diplomatic pressure from the US/USSR after the preparations were discovered), and a test device later redesigned (and given the code name “Melba”) in a smaller form (and a lower yield), even more svelte than the inner gun-assembly of the initial device, which would also never be tested.
If I had to hazard a guess, then, if the photos of the “bomb casings” are from the nuclear program, and those size estimates are correct, they might have been spare/leftover/practice casings from the earlier days of the program, or from aborted schemes for later devices, now repurposed into protective the floor of a storeroom from dust.
In either case, though, both the initial, unnamed device and the miniaturized “Melba” were only intended as test devices, and “not deliverable,” according to Armscor, which assumed control of production when Pretoria moved formally to a military nuclear program. But, if we’re going “what if,” and pondering what a rushed (or jury-rigged) early South African nuke might have looked like…
The 3D modeled version (given the admittedly anachronistic name of the second device) meets the dimensions of the 1977 device, the forward section geometry based on the casing photos. The tail section is adapted from that of a Mirage III drop tank (in the SAAF inventory).
At 4.6 meters long, and weighing in the neighborhood of 3500 kg, it is a meter longer but a about 1000kg lighter than “Little Boy.” And with a projected yield of approximately six kilotons.
This is, by the figures I can find, small enough to fit in the internal weapons bay of a Canberra. Or the cargo bay of a C-130—I suppose you could load MORE than one on the latter, if you’re feeling particularly cocky.
After that, I have:
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“Hobo/Cabot” Nuclear Bomb!
After Armscor took the reigns of the weapons program, they built an initial “pre-qualification” dumb bomb in 1981/2, codenamed “Hobo” (later “Cabot”). A truly “deliverable” weapon, less specific details are available, but through deduction, it would seem to have been comparable in size/weight (though with a higher yield) to the miniaturized Melba device, and Armscor’s later “Hamerkop” weapon. (More on that, next)
Thus, we have “Cabot.” About two meters long and 6-750 kg in weight, yield again six kilotons. Front geometry based again on the photographed casings—for artistic reasons, for the rationale that the size estimates might have been off, and on the rationale that an oblate bomb shape would tend to be similar in any case—tail assembly roughly modeled after that of the Red Beard, with (retracted, in the print) pop-out fins (Armscor seemed to like to show off). This weapon should, by my notes, be suitable for carriage by the Buccaneer.
If I’m reading the data correctly, about six of these weapons were built, but only two were outfitted with nuclear material, with the others used for testing and as spares.
Now, we come to the really interesting bit…the “production” weapon, the Armscor Hamerkop (“Hammerhead”).
According to a few new sources, Armscor’s plans were not to merely produce a dumb bomb, but a TV guided glide bomb—quite ambitious. The only other TV guided nuclear weapon I can recall offhand was a variant of the AGM-62. These would have taken the form of warheads for the Armscor (later Denel) Raptor glide bomb, which has seen service in a conventional form since the 1980s, in several variants, and later exported/license produced/copied (accounts seem to differ) by Pakistan, where it serves today, reportedly on several other aircraft types (Mirages, JF-17s, etc.). I’m having trouble finding if there are any other users besides SA and Pakistan.
Seven nuclear Hamerkops were reportedly produced in the 1980s, with a yield of 20 kilotons each, and a glide range of about sixty kilometers. These weapons were also intended to be carried by the Buccaneer.
However, at this point, I confess that I’ve had much more trouble finding technical details on the Raptor—I only found a decent enough diagram of the thing while I was typing this up!—but, more to the point, someone’s already beaten me to the punch on Shapeways. Model Ordnance
offers a 1/72 version, including the Data Link and ECM pods. As far as I can tell, the nuclear warhead for the Hamerkop would have been the same or similar sized to the Raptor’s conventional one, so this would be the expedient choice for 1/72 modelers wishing to acquire one.
There were a few other South African nuclear warhead concepts, such as smaller implosion devices—all of the above devices were Uranium gun devices. It looks like they would have been Uranium, not Plutonium, implosion devices at that. The United States, Soviet Union, China, and Pakistan have all tested such devices, with the latter two apparently fielding them—boosted weapons, and even thermonuclear devices. But very little actual work was done towards developing them, let alone any hardware design.
So, there ya have it! Two or three shiny new/old nukes, for equipping South African or other comparably equipped historical “what if?” air forces.