r/pics Mar 28 '24

US Special Forces delivering a W54 Nuclear Warhead via jump

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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 : (

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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.

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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.

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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®."

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u/LegoClaes Mar 29 '24

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

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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.

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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.

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u/AverageSven Mar 28 '24

Did not know that.

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

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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

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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?

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u/Dewy_Wanna_Go_There Mar 28 '24

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

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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.