Inert nuclear missile found in US man's garage
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Inert nuclear missile found in US man's garage
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68189568Police in Washington state say an old rusted rocket found in a local man's garage is an inert nuclear missile.
On Wednesday, a military museum in Ohio called police in the city of Bellevue to report an offer of a rather unusual donation.
The police then sent a bomb squad to the potential donor's home. "And we think it's gonna be a long, long time before we get another call like this again," police said referring to Elton John's iconic song Rocket Man. In a press release, police say the device is "in fact a Douglas AIR-2 Genie (previous designation MB-1), an unguided air-to-air rocket that is designed to carry a 1.5 kt W25 nuclear warhead". However, there was no warhead attached, meaning there was never any danger to the community.
Bellevue Police Department spokesman Seth Tyler, told BBC News on Friday that the device was "just basically a gas tank for rocket fuel". He called the event "not serious at all". "In fact, our bomb squad member asked me why we were releasing a news release on a rusted piece of metal," he said.
Image source, Bellevue Police Department Image caption,
The missile was found in a garage outside Seattle The call to police came from the National Museum of the US Air Force near Dayton, Ohio.The man, who does not wish to be identified and is "extremely irritated" by the media coverage, "was not expecting a call from us", Mr Tyler said, saying it seems the museum did not warn him they would be reporting his donation offer. "He was gracious enough to let us have a look at it and we determined that it was safe," he said. Officials never suspected that a nuclear warhead might be present, meaning there was no need for mass evacuations in the city of 150,000 people 10 miles (16km) east of Seattle.
The man told police that the rocket belonged to a neighbour who had died, and was originally purchased from an estate sale. Police ultimately deemed the item an "artefact with no explosive hazard". "Because the item was inert and the military did not request it back, police left the item with the neighbour to be restored for display in a museum."
According to the Seattle Times, the rocket was used by the US and Canada during the Cold War. The first and only live firing of the Genie rocket was in 1957, according to the newspaper, and production of it ended in 1962.
On Wednesday, a military museum in Ohio called police in the city of Bellevue to report an offer of a rather unusual donation.
The police then sent a bomb squad to the potential donor's home. "And we think it's gonna be a long, long time before we get another call like this again," police said referring to Elton John's iconic song Rocket Man. In a press release, police say the device is "in fact a Douglas AIR-2 Genie (previous designation MB-1), an unguided air-to-air rocket that is designed to carry a 1.5 kt W25 nuclear warhead". However, there was no warhead attached, meaning there was never any danger to the community.
Bellevue Police Department spokesman Seth Tyler, told BBC News on Friday that the device was "just basically a gas tank for rocket fuel". He called the event "not serious at all". "In fact, our bomb squad member asked me why we were releasing a news release on a rusted piece of metal," he said.
Image source, Bellevue Police Department Image caption,The missile was found in a garage outside Seattle The call to police came from the National Museum of the US Air Force near Dayton, Ohio.The man, who does not wish to be identified and is "extremely irritated" by the media coverage, "was not expecting a call from us", Mr Tyler said, saying it seems the museum did not warn him they would be reporting his donation offer. "He was gracious enough to let us have a look at it and we determined that it was safe," he said. Officials never suspected that a nuclear warhead might be present, meaning there was no need for mass evacuations in the city of 150,000 people 10 miles (16km) east of Seattle.
The man told police that the rocket belonged to a neighbour who had died, and was originally purchased from an estate sale. Police ultimately deemed the item an "artefact with no explosive hazard". "Because the item was inert and the military did not request it back, police left the item with the neighbour to be restored for display in a museum."
According to the Seattle Times, the rocket was used by the US and Canada during the Cold War. The first and only live firing of the Genie rocket was in 1957, according to the newspaper, and production of it ended in 1962.
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True cold war spirit to fire some unguided AA nuke missile with ten kilometres range at your enemy.
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My wife and I were just discussing this “click bait” when we saw it on the BBC news website.
It was an inert rocket casing that MIGHT have had a nuclear device fitted if it had been needed. Newsworthy? I’d say not.
It was an inert rocket casing that MIGHT have had a nuclear device fitted if it had been needed. Newsworthy? I’d say not.
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Quite so. This is an old unguided rocket missile that could have had a variety of warheads fitted - but this one has no warhead !
So it is certainly not 'inert nuclear' - and probably never ever was nuclear. Give me strength, that's 5 minutes wasted.
So it is certainly not 'inert nuclear' - and probably never ever was nuclear. Give me strength, that's 5 minutes wasted.
Given the range and yield, I can see why guidance was not required!
Our crew prep complete (for the exercise) we decided that the approach to the drop point had to be done while already heading down wind ... and that still may not matter.
The guys flying the S-3 had it made, by comparison.
A guy from the exercise cell pointed out, though, that if we were dropping buckets of sunshine there was a good chance that any torps heading toward our ships were similarly tipped ... and 'close is good enough' from that perspective as well.
His wry observation was: "Sure, you may get away from the blast, but when you come back to home plate you may only find boiled fish"
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I REALLY must check out the heap of stuff at the back of my garage.................
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Still laughing...... anyway,
The Genie was surprisingly accurate considering the motor did not fire until the thing was almost 2 meters/yards underneath your butt. There was a wire that pulled a device on it to start the motor. Carried them on a rotary door. We fired the things every year before the motor propellant castings on older ones cracked. Great exercise for crews and the ammo loaders in the squad, and gave us a good feeling about using one in WW3 to stop a Bear or Bison. It was very small diameter warhead...figure a large soccer ball in a tube about a meter long. Our plane would be about 3 or 4 km behind when it was supposed explode in front of the bomber. No guidance and used a timer our weapon system set.
Got to launch one from my trusty VooDoo back in 1966. Because we rolled out at the drone's dead six, the thing zoomed past the drone before activating the simulated nuke out in front of it. The telemetry claimed a "zero" miss distance as it passed. Sucker went straight as an arrow. The next year was a bust for me and my RIO because the motor did not ignite and the thing fell for over a minute broadcasting all the way down, heh heh.
Gums recalls...
The Genie was surprisingly accurate considering the motor did not fire until the thing was almost 2 meters/yards underneath your butt. There was a wire that pulled a device on it to start the motor. Carried them on a rotary door. We fired the things every year before the motor propellant castings on older ones cracked. Great exercise for crews and the ammo loaders in the squad, and gave us a good feeling about using one in WW3 to stop a Bear or Bison. It was very small diameter warhead...figure a large soccer ball in a tube about a meter long. Our plane would be about 3 or 4 km behind when it was supposed explode in front of the bomber. No guidance and used a timer our weapon system set.
Got to launch one from my trusty VooDoo back in 1966. Because we rolled out at the drone's dead six, the thing zoomed past the drone before activating the simulated nuke out in front of it. The telemetry claimed a "zero" miss distance as it passed. Sucker went straight as an arrow. The next year was a bust for me and my RIO because the motor did not ignite and the thing fell for over a minute broadcasting all the way down, heh heh.
Gums recalls...
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The AIR-2 Genie was a solid propellant rocket - and removing the solid propellant without actually firing the rocket motor is far from trivial.
I would therefore conclude that - at some point - someone was planning to put the rocket on display somewhere and had gone through some effort to prep it for that purpose.
I would therefore conclude that - at some point - someone was planning to put the rocket on display somewhere and had gone through some effort to prep it for that purpose.
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The Genie was considered for arming the Lightning with the US providing the missiles and the UK the exploding bit. Proposal was for just one to be carried on the aircraft which might have been the T4 version rather than the single seaters as this met the two man rule regarding handling nuclear weapons.
The idea seems to have been dropped on cost grounds and also that the US would retain control / supply of the weapon and also whether the UK had the capacity to produce the nuclear warheads..
The idea seems to have been dropped on cost grounds and also that the US would retain control / supply of the weapon and also whether the UK had the capacity to produce the nuclear warheads..
F-89. B-57 chase, don't know which model.
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Big beast to tack onto a Lightning I'd have thought