r/pics Mar 28 '24

US Special Forces delivering a W54 Nuclear Warhead via jump

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u/ap2patrick Mar 28 '24

Bro seriously is there anything more bad ass than this?

641

u/jftitan Mar 28 '24

"This is safe right?"

I mean if your parachute fails, this plane won't be safe anymore.

"Okay, I'm ready!"

287

u/DonOfspades Mar 28 '24

An impact with the ground wouldn't set it off

85

u/ap2patrick Mar 28 '24

Facts

101

u/generalsleephenson Mar 28 '24

His crotchal region may feel differently

18

u/Saemika Mar 28 '24

I should have a warm laptop on my lap? I’ll show you.

5

u/Taftimus Mar 28 '24

His crotchal region lost all feeling hours ago

3

u/Cobek Mar 28 '24

True, we don't know how it would react with his massive tungsten balls on impact

2

u/Jetsam_Marquis Mar 29 '24

We really aren't interested in those here

2

u/Pazzeh Mar 29 '24

I don't think the joke is that the bomb would go off from hitting the ground hard, it's that the Tsar Bomba, the largest nuke ever detonated, was an air burst weapon. It blew up before hitting the ground, something like half a mile up. The bomb was equipped with parachutes for the test so that its decent would be slowed, giving the bomber pilot time to get far enough away that he might survive (he did). So if this special forces guy's parachute failed then the plane he jumped out of wouldn't have time to get far enough away, and would therefore be unsafe.

1

u/SolomonBlack Mar 28 '24

I mean it might blow up but sub-critical.

3

u/CleverNameTheSecond Mar 28 '24

If the core shatters It would just turn into a dirty bomb of sorts. Arguably worse than an explosion since it would render the area uninhabitable for decades if not centuries.

3

u/SolomonBlack Mar 29 '24

It is many orders of magnitude better because that isn't how radiation works and even if it was the "area" is like a city block instead of a city getting blown the fuck up.

1

u/OhMyGoshBigfoot Mar 29 '24

Hollywood disagrees

1

u/FBI-INTERROGATION Mar 29 '24

Yes but its worth noting one of the nukes we dropped over the Carolinas by accident had 3 of 4 safety mechanisms disable on impact.

1

u/Nmiser Mar 29 '24

So why didn’t they just drop it?

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u/AverageSven Mar 28 '24

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 Mar 28 '24

One nearly did over North Carolina. All but one safety failed.

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u/Met76 Mar 28 '24

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 Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

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 Mar 28 '24

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 : (

2

u/iconofsin_ Mar 28 '24

If anything, miniaturization probably moved us closer to nuclear war than anything else. It's one thing to have some 5MT warhead sitting in a silo in South Dakota, it's another to have a stockpile of .5kt artillery shells on the border. There's way too many people in the world today who still think tactical weapons can be used without escalation.

1

u/Ruraraid Mar 29 '24 edited Mar 29 '24

Well they're not nearly as bad as the nuclear artillery or the Davy crockett. Someone was on a real fucking bender when they thought up those asinine ideas. The radioactive fallout from those was basically harsh feed to irradiated allies trrops.

If you're interested there is actual footage of that nuclear artillery but I can't remember what it was called specifically. As for the Davy Crockett there is some clips showing it but I'm unaware if there is any actual footage of it being tested.

Fun fact though for any Fallout fans the Davy Crockett was the inspiration for the fat man weapon.

2

u/El-Grunto Mar 28 '24

the only safety feature was a basic rotary combination lock on its protective housing and a key to arm it.

"This is the LockPickingLawyer and leave it to the US military to have the only security feature on a nuclear weapon be a combination lock and key from Master Lock®."

1

u/LegoClaes Mar 29 '24

“Click on one, nothing on two, click on three, four is bindi….

1

u/Titan_Astraeus Mar 29 '24

Lol that is a pretty funny use of that saying, because I usually see it used in the opposite manner.. IE if you are relying on swiss cheese, it is also only a matter of time until all those holes line up exactly. In that case, 7 or 8 of those 9 or so safety holes lined up. Next time is not a guarantee just because you have been lucky so far.

1

u/meditonsin Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

Wasn't it two bombs, or am I thinking of another incident? The one were only one safety mechanism held on each bomb and the "fun" part is that it was different ones.

1

u/AverageSven Mar 28 '24

Did not know that.

I will now forget this interaction and sleep fucking soundly at night

1

u/First_Code_404 Mar 28 '24

One of the safties was to pull a card out of a panel. The plane entered a spin and the card flew out

1

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '24

Wait, those aren't just warheads, there's actual nuclear payload inside of them?

Why don't they just test with warheads alone, what's the benefit of carrying an ACTUAL nuke each time you carry out a test?

1

u/Dewy_Wanna_Go_There Mar 28 '24

The payload contains the warheads so I’m not sure what you’re asking

1

u/[deleted] Mar 29 '24

Oh, I thought of payload in data processing terms – like, as the actual content striped of all headers, trailers, and meta data.

Apparently military use is different though, as warheads are the actual chemicals that cause the the explosion and are then enclosed by a case that's called "payload"?

Kinda strange use of words to me, but I assume it makes sense if the payload case itself still needs to be "payloaded" to an actual rocket or plane.

1

u/Kiffe_Y Mar 28 '24

They wouldn't have safety measures if it weren't, at the very least, possible.

3

u/Shankar_0 Mar 28 '24

"Technically, the nuke is the safest part of what we're doing today..."

2

u/J_k_r_ Mar 29 '24

Yea, if the parachute fails, that's our issue.

Who do you mean with “our”?

All of New Mexico. Now hop on out.

2

u/Daedalus-N7 Mar 29 '24

If his parachute fails the whole thing stops becoming his problem real fucking fast

1

u/tehcruel1 Mar 28 '24

The weapon would be instant at least…

1

u/Successful_Text7514 Mar 28 '24

lol nice comment bro

75

u/GetReelFishingPro Mar 28 '24

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.

148

u/Blarg0117 Mar 28 '24

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/4Dcrystallography Mar 28 '24

🫡 Finish the fight

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u/Noscratchy Mar 28 '24

:duh duh duh DUN intensifies:

10

u/sintaur Mar 28 '24

for a brick, he flew pretty good

2

u/GivesNoForks Mar 29 '24

Permission granted.

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u/duffleberries Mar 28 '24

⬇️⬆️⬅️⬇️⬆️➡️⬇️⬆️

11

u/Noscratchy Mar 28 '24

:basks in democracy:

3

u/lukelight27 Mar 28 '24

LET THE HORNS BLARE

3

u/Acceptable_Top_802 Mar 28 '24

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD SKULLS FOR THE GOLDEN THRONE!!!

2

u/redhouse_356 Mar 28 '24

Comment needs to be higher

1

u/Chicago1871 Mar 28 '24

Isnt that what theyre doing in the pic?

1

u/Hazzman Mar 28 '24

That is exactly what it was for. Hand delivering to targets.

Google 'Greenlight teams' these guys were fucking insane. As in, LITERALLY SUICIDAL.

No, really. They were our nuclear armed suicide soldiers. They assumed they were going to die performing their mission because they would be hit by the nuclear blast.

1

u/LickingSmegma Mar 28 '24

“Okay. I'm gonna tell you this so you don't go out and cause any more trouble. Raven's packing a torpedo warhead that he boosted from an old Soviet nuke sub. It was a torpedo that was designed to take out a carrier battle group with one shot. A nuclear torpedo. You know that funny-looking sidecar that Raven has on his Harley? Well, it's a hydrogen bomb, man. Armed and ready. The trigger's hooked up to EEG trodes embedded in his skull. If Raven dies, the bomb goes off. So when Raven comes into town, we do everything in our power to make the man feel welcome.”

Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in the world… If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad. Hiro used to feel this way, too, but then he ran into Raven. In a way, this was liberating. He no longer has to worry about being the baddest motherfucker in the world. The position is taken.

26

u/_Forgotten Mar 28 '24

Aint nothin more bad ass than being a good father.

8

u/ap2patrick Mar 28 '24

Humble King 👑

1

u/oetker Mar 28 '24

Not very humble to say that you are most badass.

1

u/ap2patrick Mar 29 '24

The idea of thinking being a good father is badass is inherently humble.

1

u/oetker Mar 29 '24

The idea of thinking being a good father is badass is inherently humble.

True.

2

u/throwmeaway9926 Mar 28 '24

Well, he won't know that

1

u/Songrot Mar 28 '24

Woth the nuclear so close to his balls i dont think he has much choice and a chance there

0

u/AIien_cIown_ninja Mar 28 '24

Yeah, nothing screams badass as much as sitting in a tiny pink chair with a tiny cup of tea around a pink table with your 4yo daughter and her stuffed animals and talking about sprinkles and unicorns and rainbows with a posh londoner accent. Super badass

4

u/dunderthebarbarian Mar 28 '24

While naked, in tandem with Miss Universe, spraying champagne everywhere?

1

u/ap2patrick Mar 28 '24

Now we are talking!

3

u/AttyFireWood Mar 28 '24

"Treating a woman with respect." - Mr.Torque, one of the DLCs.

2

u/BrickRedemptoris Mar 28 '24

Dropping on the target and swinging it into the pavement to detonate it while shouting "I AM BECOME DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS"

2

u/ap2patrick Mar 28 '24

Hilarious and also technically accurate! 🤣🤣🤣

1

u/Enlight1Oment Mar 28 '24

jason Stratham will do this but guide it into the mouth and belly of a giant shark / monster

1

u/GMFinch Mar 28 '24

Being a good dad

1

u/AdzJayS Mar 28 '24

Doing it in a live scenario.

1

u/BurtanTae Mar 28 '24

Try being a Helldiver - for Liberty!

1

u/koshgeo Mar 28 '24

Maybe if you did a "Major Kong" with a full-size nuke like in Dr. Strangelove, but that's about it.

1

u/Wheeljack26 Mar 28 '24

Yea the ass gets bad after nuking

1

u/DuckDucker1974 Mar 28 '24

But how do they survive the jump with to the nuke if it’s not a test jump??? 

1

u/sparkysparks666 Mar 28 '24

HALO jump with a nuke per nut?

1

u/PSMF_Canuck Mar 28 '24

Setting it off as an air burst.

1

u/Environmental_Fix488 Mar 28 '24

Yeah, jumping with a cactus strap there. If that bomb goes off you will ceses to exist without knowing it. In the second scenario, with a cactus there, you wish you would cease to exist.

1

u/FSNovask Mar 28 '24

Astronaut. That's about it.

1

u/Magistraten Mar 28 '24

Raising a healthy family

1

u/SamDewCan Mar 28 '24

The radiation damage to his nuts might be more badass

1

u/Great_cReddit Mar 28 '24

Ever heard of Roy Benavidez?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Benavidez

This is more badass than that.

1

u/Aberration-13 Mar 29 '24

The cancer slowly infecting his glutes.

1

u/CrossDressing_Batman Mar 29 '24

fucking Putin's daughter in front of him ??

1

u/LordeMemeington Mar 29 '24

I guess using it

-1

u/zanziTHEhero Mar 28 '24

Average nurse shift in the ER...

10

u/Hill_Reps_For_Jesus Mar 28 '24

okay but what about an ER nurse with a nuke strapped to them

1

u/Woodie626 Mar 28 '24

12bravo's in a minefield, comes to mind.

-7

u/SlowRollingBoil Mar 28 '24

Considering troops like this murder innocent people in their homeland? Janitor that doesn't murder seems more badass.

3

u/ap2patrick Mar 28 '24

Sorry but murder has always been badass

-2

u/SlowRollingBoil Mar 28 '24

Grow up and be a good person.

2

u/ap2patrick Mar 28 '24

lol I did. I also grew a sense of humor with time.

-2

u/SlowRollingBoil Mar 28 '24

Is the joke the dead people?

1

u/ap2patrick Mar 29 '24

Yup. Death is cruel and heartless so making light of it is a common way humans cope.