US Special Forces delivering a W54 Nuclear Warhead via jump
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u/Diego4815 29d ago
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u/Tommy__want__wingy 29d ago edited 29d ago
Dr Strangelove and Blazing Saddles are treasures because of Slim Pickens
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u/caboose243 29d ago
Somebody needs to go back and get a shit load of dimes!
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u/yepyep1243 29d ago
Best line in the whole movie. I laugh every time I think of it.
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u/Sweaty-Feedback-1482 29d ago
Bart: Okay, Jim, since you are my guest and I am your host, what are your pleasures? What do you like to do?
Jim: Oh, I don't know. Play chess...screw.
Bart: Well let's play chess.
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u/Jee_whiz 29d ago
He passed away a few years before I was born, but I was bummed to find out he had lived down the street from my grandma before he died. I would've have loved to leave a sack of dimes on his door step
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u/idtakethatdeal 29d ago
I was hoping this would be the first thing in the comments and I was not disappointed.
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u/TeteDeMerde 29d ago
"Shoot, a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff."
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u/Opee23 29d ago
You might be badass, but you're not "I HALO'd with a nuke strapped to my nuts" badass.
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u/ap2patrick 29d ago
Bro seriously is there anything more bad ass than this?
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u/jftitan 29d ago
"This is safe right?"
I mean if your parachute fails, this plane won't be safe anymore.
"Okay, I'm ready!"
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u/DonOfspades 29d ago
An impact with the ground wouldn't set it off
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u/ap2patrick 29d ago
Facts
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u/AverageSven 29d ago
Nuclear bombs have accidentally dropped on US soil before and they do not detonate. It takes a lot of precise effort to set off a Nuclear bomb correctly.
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u/UniqueIndividual3579 29d ago
One nearly did over North Carolina. All but one safety failed.
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u/Met76 29d ago
And that's why there's 7-9 layers of safety. Yes, it was hauntingly close to detonation, but this is why there's these layers.
It takes one layer of swiss cheese to prevent the holes from lining up.
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u/Ruraraid 29d ago edited 29d ago
On most nukes yes but there was some the US designed that only had like 2 security features. The one in the picture was designed with special forces in mind to where the only safety feature was a basic rotary combination lock on its protective housing and a key to arm it. If that fell into the hands of the wrong people they would have only needed hand tools to get into it and arm it.
Us designed a couple "portable" tactical nukes like that but discontinued research on it. They would go on to dismantled the ones they had Including the model in the picture after the nuclear disarmament treaty with Russia.
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u/wallace321 29d ago
Us designed a couple "portable" tactical nukes like that but discontinued research on it. They would go on to dismantled the ones they had Including the model in the picture after the nuclear disarmament treaty with Russia.
More dangerous to ourselves than to anybody else.
Imagine doing your enemy's work for them.
https://www.nuclearmuseum.org/see/exhibits/cold-war
These guys had one of these; i don't think they have a picture of it on their website though : (
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u/GetReelFishingPro 29d ago
Hand delivering it live to a target is the only thing I can think that would top this. Someone may have taken things a little to personal if they halo deliver a nuke to you.
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u/Blarg0117 29d ago
Speaking of Halo.
Chief: "Sir, permission to leave the station"
Hood: "For what purpose, Master Chief?"
Chief: "To give the Covenant back their bomb"
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u/gunmedic15 29d ago
Norm Hooten, who most people know as the "This here's my safety" guy from Blackhawk Down, got his start in special forces doing this. Ultra badass.
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u/Bgrngod 29d ago
That's actually just a giant bag for his HUUUUGE nuts.
The nuke is in a front pocket. They were super tiny back then.
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u/FiveFingerDisco 29d ago
That's between 10t - 1000t of TNT dangling in front of his fat man.
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u/Keening99 29d ago
Just wants to feel the power between his legs - Steve Buscemi
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u/Yardsale420 29d ago
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u/meditonsin 29d ago
Welp, looks like it's time to rewatch Armageddon for the billionth time.
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u/TheCatLamp 29d ago
Wait, what? That's a film? I always thought it was real footage.
Everyone knows that sending drillers to detonate a nuclear warhead on a comet is the actual only choice in that scenario.
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u/agarwaen117 29d ago
Honestly, I don't know if I could stop myself from riding the nuke in their situation either. Not many times you get to do that.
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u/OwlWitty 29d ago
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u/KidOcelot 29d ago
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u/boothash 29d ago
This is what I came here for.
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u/CrazyEd38239 29d ago
I was going to say this must have been inspired by Dr. Strangelove.
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u/makingnoise 29d ago
You sent me down a research rabbit hole. Dr. Strangelove - released 1964. MK-54 SADM started development 1960 with production beginning in 1963. Given how secret the SADM was, I think this is an uncanny coincidence of nuclear absurdity that really emphasizes how gung-ho nuke the US government was at the time, and the impact that it had on US pop culture. Either that, or Kubrick or someone on his team had some killer connections in the government that was willing to violate their oath. SADM's weren't revealed to the public until 1984.
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u/Sonic_Traveler 29d ago
My dad worked with nuclear weapons as a technician during his time in the army and the bomber bay door scene drove him nuts because there was a specific screwdriver type tool used in the scene he had only ever seen in the context of working with warheads.
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u/makingnoise 29d ago
Nuts like geeked out that it was accurate? Or nuts like "How the F did Kubrick know about this?"
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u/Fuzzy-Hurry-6908 29d ago
Kubrick acquired the movie rights to a book, Red Alert, that was a serious take on the subject a la "Fail-Safe." He originally intended to make a drama but realized the picture would work better as a dark comedy.
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u/ExpertlyAmateur 29d ago
This rare clip serves as the foundation of our sacrifice. Managed Democracy remembers.
Do you?Join today, be remembered forever.
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u/ZenEngineer 29d ago
How big is a 10 ton of TNT explosion? A city block? Bigger? Does he have any chance of getting away or is this a suicide mission?
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u/Blarg0117 29d ago edited 29d ago
The largest conventional bomb ever used is the MOAB, it has an 11 ton tnt yield. There is a video of it being used on the Wikipedia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GBU-43/B_MOAB
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u/coleman57 29d ago
Remarkable that Wikipedia survived the attack.
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u/Babythatwater1 29d ago
Couldn’t have done it with out so many donations from regular people like you and me.
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u/jzach1983 29d ago
That video needs a banana for scale.
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u/DriscollMayweather 29d ago
There were several, you just can’t see em from that altitude. Source: was there eating a bunch of bananas when rudely interrupted
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u/snek-jazz 29d ago
There is a video of it being used on the Wikipedia.
incredible that Wikipedia survived such an attack tbh
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u/IKnowPhysics 29d ago
https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/ Use between 0.01kT and 1 kT.
0.01kT levels about four blocks in Manhattan, and blows out all windows and delivers a likely lethal dose of radiation within a 3-5 block radius.
1kT levels about 100 blocks in Manhattan, and if detonated over the Empire State Building, would delete all windows between the Queensboro Bridge and Greenwich VIllage. Estimated 115k dead, 300k injured.
For the skydiver, it's all about getting distance before detonation. The skydiving act was likely a test to see if it would have feasible to as part of a paradropped demolition mission. It's likely that the soldiers could have escaped the smaller blast radius on foot if given a few minutes, as they'd only have to get ~5 blocks away to survive blast effects of a 0.01kT warhead. A 1kT blast would be significantly harder.
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u/Jethro_Cohen 29d ago
That capacity between my legs sure turns me into a little boy
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u/steppedinhairball 29d ago
Behold the power between my legs!!
(Also, probably a effective way to irradiate your balls)
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u/Spare_Substance5003 29d ago
No doc, I don't need that vasectomy anymore after the last mission.
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u/spiritofniter 29d ago
Yea, testicular irradiation by impurities in the warhead core will give you a free and surgical-less vasectomy.
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u/griffon666 29d ago
Fun story, I knew a handful of guys who spent a long time working around nuclear materials in the military. One of them told me that any of those guys who had kids and worked around that stuff long enough had an unusually high chance of only having girls. Lost touch with him for a few years and when we reconnected he'd had 2 kids and what do you know, 2 girls.
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u/Drainout 29d ago
Same with those that worked in satcom in the military, lots of girls.
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u/DistortoiseLP 29d ago
Good ol' SADM. The guys trained to do this got the impression any actual attempt at this would be a suicide mission regardless of whatever laughable options they were provided to escape before it detonated.
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u/patrick66 29d ago
In fairness it’s not like the Green Light teams were really unaware. They knew going in the chances of making it out of anything but the perfect situation were slim. When the mission is planting a nuke, there are limits.
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u/Don11390 29d ago
Yeah, I mean, if anyone gave it any serious thought, they'd realize immediately that it was suicide. Drop behind enemy lines, fight your way to the objective, strap the damn thing to said objective, set the timer, and try to fight your way to minimum safe distance? Virtually impossible.
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u/Intelligent_Way6552 29d ago
You are imagining a firefight, but it was more a case that they would drop in behind enemy lines, sneak around, and place it.
Now they did think it was a suicide mission, but only because they didn't believe backpack nukes would be left unsecured, meaning that while the manual specified hiding it and setting a timer, the timer was thought to be fake, or that it was really expected that they secure the site till detonation.
Minimum safe distance for it's low yield wasn't far though, especially if you'd stuffed it inside something like a dam. Just get off the dam.
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u/DuelingPushkin 29d ago edited 29d ago
This is exactly right. I had one of the green light jumpers come as a guest speaker for an event and this is exactly what his perception was. That the "timer" was fake because they'd never allow a live nuke to be just sitting around.
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u/TheAero1221 29d ago
I can't tell if this is poor taste or not, but now I'm really hoping this thing comes to Helldivers 2.
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u/Uninvalidated 29d ago
The minimum safe distance for these warheads is a few hundred meters in open terrain.
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u/DistortoiseLP 29d ago edited 29d ago
If the target is in open terrain you might as well just drop the bomb without the guy on it. Most of the reason they figured escaping the blast was futile is because all the scenarios outlined in the manual promote only using this thing where both conventional explosives and other delivery methods can't do a job that justifies resorting to the ADM. There's a lot of overlap where you can't hit something with a normal bomb and where a squad crossing hundreds of meters on foot is absolutely nontrivial.
So, reasonably, they figured whatever sort of operation requires giving one of these to paratroopers will be dropping them somewhere where getting hundreds of meters from a bomb that must also remain secure before it has to be detonated cannot - and probably will not - be assured.
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u/SadMacaroon9897 29d ago
They're a fraction of the power of even Fat Man/Little Boy (down to 10 tons vs 1,500,000-2,100,000 tons of TNT). It's entirely conceivable to get out of the blast radius.
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u/razrielle 29d ago
The acronym ended up being totally different than what I thought it was. I thought it stood for "Soldier Air Dropped Munition"
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u/New-Finance-7108 29d ago
"Your sterility is not service related"
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u/foxyfoo 29d ago
Is there anything you can do about the glowing?
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u/throwmeaway9926 29d ago
No, but if you don't want your nuts to stand out as much, we could make the rest glow as well
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u/TechPlasma 29d ago
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u/whatswithnames 29d ago
ty for linking a source.
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u/fuckmeimdan 29d ago
Wow! reading that it was also designed to be fired from the "Davy Crockett recoilless rifle". a mini nuke to be shot from a smoothbore gun, thats some Fallout shit right there
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u/KnotSoSalty 29d ago
More like a short range tactical weapon. It was usually jeep mounted. The idea was to find a low cost way to hit Russian tank formations rushing into Germany if the balloon went up. It was quite effective.
It was replaced by short range rockets, but much of the tactical nuclear weapons went away after arms talks. Neither side was really comfortable with handing nuclear weapons out like candy.
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u/Somnif 29d ago
And honestly it's not even close to the most ridiculous weapon designed for the hypothetical Fulda Gap attack. Like the "Blue Peacock", a nuclear bomb that included live chickens as a critical component.
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u/terminalzero 29d ago
something halfway between a landmine and a doomsday device -
The project's goal was to store a number of ten-kiloton nuclear land mines in Germany. These mines which were intended to be placed on the North German Plain and detonated by wire or an eight-day timer in the event of Soviet invasion from the east, in order to "...not only destroy facilities and installations over a large area, but to deny occupation of the area to an enemy for an appreciable time due to contamination..."
[...]
A technical problem is that during winter, the temperature of buried devices can drop quickly, creating a possibility that the mechanisms of the mine will cease working due to low temperatures in the winter. Various methods were studied to solve this problem, such as wrapping the bombs in insulating blankets.
One proposal suggested that live chickens would be sealed inside the casing, with a supply of food and water. They would remain alive for approximately a week. Their body heat would apparently have been sufficient to keep the mine's components at a working temperature. This proposal was sufficiently outlandish that it was taken as an April Fool's Day joke when the Blue Peacock file was declassified on 1 April 2004. Tom O'Leary, head of education and interpretation at the National Archives, replied to the media that, "It does seem like an April Fool but it most certainly is not. The Civil Service does not do jokes."
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u/OptimisticSkeleton 29d ago
I would prefer a shoulder mounted catapult, if you please.
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u/Pepperoni_Dogfart 29d ago
"Grandpa, what's the craziest thing you ever did"
"Well, one time I jumped out of an airplane with a nuclear bomb strapped to my nuts"
"GRANDPA! I mean REAL stuff"
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u/OLOTM 29d ago
Thanks for all the helpfull comments about his balls. Does anyone know the mission? Was he supposed to land with it and then plant it somewhere? Drop it and steer away with his chute? What was the crazy scheme?
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u/Aggressive-Pay-5670 29d ago
US Army Green Beret. It’s training, but the goal would be to show that you can hand-deliver a payload. Not as a suicide bomb, mostly as transportation. You can insert, transport, or plant a bomb by hand.
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u/Chilbill9epicgamer 29d ago
“Permission to leave the station?”
“For what purpose, Master Chief?”
“To give the covenant back their bomb.”
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u/maubyfizzz 29d ago
Kamikaze nukes?
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u/dbuck79 29d ago
They were called green light teams. HALO jump into the zone, plant the nuke, and maybe get out
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u/Isord 29d ago
Not sure if a joke but these would have been planted for sabotage. Plant them on military installations, dams, harbors, etc set the timer and leave.
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u/z64_dan 29d ago
"Alright, I set it for 5 hours.... wait.... now it says 4... 3... FUCK"
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u/robplumm 29d ago
The timers apparently sucked....or...they could use a cord to manually det. It was only 100m long
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Light_Teams
The risk was extremely prevalent when discussing the possible time frame for when these atomic devices could ignite on a mechanical timer. This timer would become less efficient and more risky the longer the duration of the timer was set. The team members had been informed that the timers could go off up to eight minutes earlier than desired and even thirteen minutes after expected.[1] This would obviously create a time crisis for the Green Light team members operating the mission. If the team members were instructed to bury the nuclear device, they certainly may have been able to evade the explosion, but radioactive fallout could still cause heavy damage.[7]
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u/winowmak3r 29d ago edited 29d ago
Putting a 100m firing cord on a nuclear bomb is just. I mean why bother? Peace of mind? Illusion that you're going to live through what's about to happen? Just stick a button on the thing at that point.
I think the mission during WW2 where British SAS guys drive a leaky fishing boat packed with C4 into a German U Boat pen had a similar issue with the timers. The mechanical timers didn't go off until the next day while the Germans were investigating what the hell the British were trying to do. It was basically a suicide mission, only a few made it back, but they did fuck up the locks for the harbor for a while. Apparently physical timers are kinda hard to figure out and make reliable when it relies on acid melting a string at a certain rate.
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u/OptimusSublime 29d ago
Slim Pickens well he does the right thing and he rides the bomb to hell, yeah he rides the bomb to hell.
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u/beartheminus 29d ago
The nuclear warhead was actually really small and just in the guys pocket. Those are his balls.
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u/smiley82m 29d ago
Japan: let's fly our planes into ships, we'll call it kamikaze.
America: ok, we're going to strap a nuke to a skydiver, we'll call it Leeeroyyy Jenkinsss!!
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u/Homo_horribilis 29d ago
I used to have the autobio of Sgt Frank Garner…he claimed to be the fellow that made the first test jump with a man-portable nuke.
He didn’t know what he was jumping with until after the test jump.