Cold war special forces jumped with backpack nukes
Thread Starter
Cold war special forces jumped with backpack nukes
OK - loosely mil aviation related, but I kid you not.
They got pushed out the back with a bucket of instant sunshine strapped to them.
Here's the story - from Stars and Stripes - about the B-54 mine.
They got pushed out the back with a bucket of instant sunshine strapped to them.
Here's the story - from Stars and Stripes - about the B-54 mine.
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Perth - Western Australia
Age: 75
Posts: 1,805
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I'm appalled, but not surprised. When I found out many years ago, that the FSC codes contain nuclear depth charges (FSC1120) and nuclear demolition charges (FSC1125), I rapidly understood just how much the Americans had miniaturised nukes.
I don't know if just hiding behind a wall a few hundred metres away, when blowing a bridge, would be a good idea, if you were handed nuke demo charges.
I don't know if just hiding behind a wall a few hundred metres away, when blowing a bridge, would be a good idea, if you were handed nuke demo charges.
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Australia - South of where I'd like to be !
Age: 59
Posts: 4,261
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
One small nuke is a hell of a lot easier than trying to lay charges
on buildings in a plant, plus of course the fact that you don't
actually need to enter said target.
But as has been pointed out, I wouldn't put much hope on getting
out alive on a mission like that.
The other thing that was obvious in the article was actually getting
to the target with the thing on your back. Heavy packs with odd
shaped things do not make for either quiet tactical movement or fire
and movement if contacted.
on buildings in a plant, plus of course the fact that you don't
actually need to enter said target.
But as has been pointed out, I wouldn't put much hope on getting
out alive on a mission like that.
The other thing that was obvious in the article was actually getting
to the target with the thing on your back. Heavy packs with odd
shaped things do not make for either quiet tactical movement or fire
and movement if contacted.
Training in the use of 'Atomic Demolition Munitions' continued at the NATO Special Weapons system School - now the NATO School Oberammergau until c 1975. The majority of students were US Army Engineers, but a number of British military students attended these otherwise US-only courses. My understanding - having corresponded with students who attended these courses, ADMs were designed to be pre-placed during TTW, as a denial weapon - eg airfields, rail yards and bridges. . I just hope they've all been accounted for...
I just hope they've all been accounted for...
Avoid imitations
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Wandering the FIR and cyberspace often at highly unsociable times
Posts: 14,573
Received 415 Likes
on
218 Posts
I just hope they've all been accounted for...
No, it's only a box of Compo rations, Menu D. Best before WW3
Almost as deadly...
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Nomadic
Posts: 1,343
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
A Nuke in a Back-Pack.....were there any 'training' accidents, or 'Unauthorised Discharges' (or whatever they were called then)....Did they affect the Night Enhancement Devices....
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Tennessee - Smoky Mountains
Age: 55
Posts: 1,602
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
Seems awfully risky. As in there in risk that the charge wouldn't get to the target, let alone the risk to those doing it. Why not simply use a missile or air-dropped bomb? Or even artillery. Such things exist(ed). Or pre-place them.
Short of putting one in a beer barrel to get it into the Kremlin, I can't see a use for these that other weapons systems couldn't do a more reliable and less risky job of.
Short of putting one in a beer barrel to get it into the Kremlin, I can't see a use for these that other weapons systems couldn't do a more reliable and less risky job of.
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: London
Posts: 7,072
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
well if they were pre-positioned - even by an hour - you'd definitely take out the target whereas Artillery or airstrike is always somewhat iffy - especially in fast moving operation
you'd just have to hope that SPETZNAS weren't there to start with
you'd just have to hope that SPETZNAS weren't there to start with
From having spoken to people who know these things, there are a very large number of non-atomic demolition charges still out there from WW2, including quite a few in Southern England.
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: raf
Posts: 610
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I heard they were placed underground at bottlenecks where the Warsaw Pact armoured columns were expected to break through, like the Fulda Pass.
Apparently they were sensitive to the cold. So scientists had to think of how to heat up the mines for such a long period of time. Electrical batteries wouldn't last, so he best source of heat they came up with is a thousand chickens with enough food and water!
Right up there with nuclear-tipped SAM - airspace denial weapons (eg NIKE Hercules, issued, inter alia, to the Luftwaffe AA units!
YS
AIM-26 Falcon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
AIR-2 Genie - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The latter at least was test fitted to a Lightning
I broadly understand the rationale behind an unguided nuclear-armed AAM to defeat hordes of Soviet bombers (eg AIR - 2 Genie), but wtf have a nuclear tipped PGM AAM such as the AIM - 26 Falcon?
Yellow-Sun (name says it all) - tell me more about the Nike-Hercules SSM role. I've never seen any reference to this mode.
Yellow-Sun (name says it all) - tell me more about the Nike-Hercules SSM role. I've never seen any reference to this mode.
I read an account about a US Army SF training exercise that required the SF Team to Infil a Hydro-Electric Dam in North Carolina that was being guarded by Infantry forces. They left behind the Back Pack Nuke per the Plan and safely Ex-filed. Shortly afterwards there was a short but REALLY HUGE Panic.....as the thing was the real deal and was now unattended but stashed in an out of the way spot inside the now unguarded Dam.
The Lads what dropped the thing off went back and collected the thing....allowing everyone "In the Know" to breathe a really HUGE sigh of relief and continue to serve until they could collect their Pensions.
I cannot attest to the veracity of the account....but I would not be the least bit surprised it could have happened some how.
Good thing they did not have the codes to arm the thing....or else it might have been discovered in a more public manner.
North Carolina had some experience with the Military attacking it with Nukes over the Years.
Whoops: Atomic Bomb dropped in Goldsboro, NC swamp, Neuse River Basin, HUC 02 | Restoration Systems
The Lads what dropped the thing off went back and collected the thing....allowing everyone "In the Know" to breathe a really HUGE sigh of relief and continue to serve until they could collect their Pensions.
I cannot attest to the veracity of the account....but I would not be the least bit surprised it could have happened some how.
Good thing they did not have the codes to arm the thing....or else it might have been discovered in a more public manner.
North Carolina had some experience with the Military attacking it with Nukes over the Years.
Whoops: Atomic Bomb dropped in Goldsboro, NC swamp, Neuse River Basin, HUC 02 | Restoration Systems
