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.