It's not clear to me what this says about our Nuclear Weapon Stockpile. What was in that inert dummy nosecone, and how did it do?

It got smashed the fuck up! That will teach the Russkies if they mess with America, we will send more rocket sleds against their inert nuclear weapons!
USA!

Um, hello? 'scuse me, yeah, over here? Ok, I have a question:
So, like, there's this thing in a nuke called a nuke. It kinda blows up and shit and it's made out of stuff that you really don't want to breathe in when it's in micro-fine dust. Let's say that this "nuke" thing got hit by a "go-ey fast" thing and got a bit of an ouchie. What would actually happen to that plutonium core? I know it wouldn't blow up, but wouldn't the fallout be worse than an explosion?

Didn't they say it was inert?

Yeah, it reminds me of some managers that you speak to and they use all the fancy terms and marketing speak but don't really say anything:

"This fancy tech we have does GoodStuff, which makes things Good, and gives us Stuff."

"Yes, but what does it ... "

"It does GoodStuff"

That's correct, but I have to wonder the practicality of this test given that the whole point was to show the 'physics package' (the part that goes 'fuckin' BOOM!') wouldn't be obliterated in the event the Chinese blast it with a rocket sled.

I love the idea of ensuring your thermo-nuclear bomb is "safe".

My guess is that they need to measure the forces that the weapon, and its internal components, are subjected to if it falls out of a transport or if it goes off course and subsequently impacts the ground. This will help them predict the likelihood of and unintentional detonation of the conventional explosives, and I suppose the likelihood of a nuclear reaction resulting from this. It will also help them predict the kind of cleanup task that will be necessary. It might also be useful to know how much secret technology survives after an impact if the weapon does not detonate.
Anyone know the back story on Sandia Labs appropriating the thunderbid symbol? It seems a poor choice for a weapons lab of colonizing nation to use the symbol of a people that nation has displaced.

This sure does put reindeer out of business this season.

And now we know why Rudolf's nose glows!

No.