The Littlest Boy Cold War Backpack Nuke

First off I want to say that I did a search for it and it seemed like the ATS search engine knew what I was talking about while typing in the words for the topic, but yielded no results. So in the event that this does in fact have a topic/thread I apologize, otherwise without further ado take a look at this!

Twenty years after Hiroshima, elite American troops trained to stop a Soviet invasion -- with nuclear weapons strapped to their backs

With that being the first few lines to the start of the article you know it does not bode well for the rest of it and you would be right in thinking so. Right now I am still reading ( almost to the last ) and sitting here thinking, "What in the world were they thinking?" While they explain it quite a few times in the midst of the article it still just astonishes me that they ( being the US ) would go through such lengths to get rid of or perhaps scare off the Soviets.

Hanging awkwardly from the parachute harness of Davis's intelligence sergeant is a 58-pound nuclear bomb.

I guess what really surprises me is that some were actually okay with having a bomb strapped to their backs all for the sake of doing this mission. While I would like to post some more snippits from the article I will leave the link so others can have a read.

www.foreignpolicy.com...

PS. Not sure if I posted this in the right spot as I rarely post. Seeing as this is a past weapon I wasn't sure if the Weaponry forum was meant for newer things or if older ones could be classified in it as well.

reply to post by MystiqueAgent


And the Soviets had one just slightly larger than a softball which could be purchased in 1989/90 for the equivalent cost of a BMW 325i ;-)

Cheers - Dave

There was also the Davy Crockett. a tactical nuclear recoilless gun which used a version of the same nuclear bomb.

en.wikipedia.org...

aaah, those were the days.
I think Pakistan have developed mini nukes just recently, so the threat of these things is still valid.

It is a chilling thought that a ''backpack'' nuke could exist….i remember about 'briefcase nukes' a few years ago but I'm guessing these smaller devices are Tatical smaller devices (still devastating to those nearest nevertheless).

It also illustrates why it is pretty much damn impossible to guard against Suicide terrorist bombers with semtex strapped on to their backs or in a bag….

It is fair to say that the American troops trained to carry backpack nukes were of the same mindset as a modern anti-western terrorist today.

regards

PDUK

OP, not sure if you were alive during those days or not...

But if you weren't...it was the height of paranoia.

And the height of patriotism as well. EVERYTHING was "US" vs "THEM". And "THEM" were the EVIL COMMIES.

I have NO doubt believing...

- that A they would plan such a thing
- and B they would find willing volunteers

Alas....the evil of "communism" has been quietly replaced with the evil of "terrorism" and it's twin bogeyman of the "islamist"

All they need now is a Fat Man to fire them.

reply to post by FisherSnake89


Don't worry I don't think they will run out of them very soon .

reply to post by MystiqueAgent


I bet no one wanted to sit next to him on the plane....

bobs_uruncle
reply to post by MystiqueAgent

 

And the Soviets had one just slightly larger than a softball which could be purchased in 1989/90 for the equivalent cost of a BMW 325i ;-)

Cheers - Dave

Really? I guess I have more digging to do then to see all of this it actually sounds quite interesting and gives more a LOT more weight to the idea of a nuclear Apocalypse.

zeroBelief
OP, not sure if you were alive during those days or not...

But if you weren't...it was the height of paranoia.

And the height of patriotism as well. EVERYTHING was "US" vs "THEM". And "THEM" were the EVIL COMMIES.

I have NO doubt believing...

- that A they would plan such a thing
- and B they would find willing volunteers

Alas....the evil of "communism" has been quietly replaced with the evil of "terrorism" and it's twin bogeyman of the "islamist"

I was not but my Dad was and he pretty much likes war stories and watching war movies so a bit of that probably resides in me. Through this article I can definitely see the change in the way we have gone about dealing with things. Our patriotism now is no different than what it seems to be back then. Almost like the same person different mask thought process.

cosmicexplorer
reply to post by MystiqueAgent

 

I bet no one wanted to sit next to him on the plane....

Haha

There may be one or more loose backpack nukes in the US left over from the cold war.

en.wikipedia.org...

The highest-ranking GRU defector Stanislav Lunev claimed that such Russian-made devices do exist and may already be in the US.

bobs_uruncle
reply to post by MystiqueAgent

 

And the Soviets had one just slightly larger than a softball which could be purchased in 1989/90 for the equivalent cost of a BMW 325i ;-)

Cheers - Dave

If you strip off everything needed to make it work, the core of the 58lb U.S. backpack nukes are about the same size and significantly less than 58lbs on their own. (Russian man-portable nuke you mention might be "some items not included". They may have purposely let some cores slip into the black market knowing that it's a rather hot item in terms of being located and with risks in handling, and actually triggering it without proper hardware is near impossible.)

As for the history of plans to use such nukes it sounds like a fairly crazy mission, having to lug that heavy rucksack around. There's likely an entire team assigned to that thing to ensure it gets planted, and if such a mission were "go" there are no guarantees of anyone on that team coming back. (Not that special forces aren't prepared to go on a one way trip, but usually a success means you get out alive.)

reply to post by pauljs75


A 5" diameter sphere (4/3*pi*r^3*mass per cubic inch) of p239 is about 22.8kg, which is about 6.5kg higher than critical mass. A geometrically formed split payload weighing say 16.3kg's would only require and external detonator trigger and that could be accommodated easily. Total weight would be in the area of around 20kg or 50 lbs. What really concerns me about these things, is even though the handling is extremely dangerous during forming and assembly, it still doesn't require a lot of technical know-how to produce low yield nuclear devices. I almost laid out the plans to build one of these and thought better of it, you never know what or whom is reading these posts.

Another problem, due to the small size is that devices of this nature can be built in to structures. Fukushima comes to mind. The Israeli's were doing the camera security and some of the cameras looked like cylinder/gun triggers. Now since Japan was allegedly selling fissionable material to Iran, one has to wonder if Fukushima was Israeli instigated rather than HAARP or natural event instigated. But who knows, other than the person with their finger on the red button?

Cheers - Dave

These are probably what they intend to pop and blame it on someone else.

PurpleDog UK
It is fair to say that the American troops trained to carry backpack nukes were of the same mindset as a modern anti-western terrorist today.

No, not at all. There was no training or plan to emplace a backpack nuke in an unsuspecting Russian coffee shop.

The mindset was that of overwhelmingly numerous Soviet conventional forces attacking Europe. The missions all reflected that circumstance.

Nobody in special forces would agree to a plan to ruck in a nuke to a foreign city at peace and blow it up.

duplicate, please delete

bobs_uruncle
reply to post by pauljs75

 

A 5" diameter sphere (4/3*pi*r^3*mass per cubic inch) of p239 is about 22.8kg, which is about 6.5kg higher than critical mass. A geometrically formed split payload weighing say 16.3kg's would only require and external detonator trigger and that could be accommodated easily. Total weight would be in the area of around 20kg or 50 lbs. What really concerns me about these things, is even though the handling is extremely dangerous during forming and assembly, it still doesn't require a lot of technical know-how to produce low yield nuclear devices. I almost laid out the plans to build one of these and thought better of it, you never know what or whom is reading these posts.

The ones that size require significant tritium boosting, and tritium decays and requires significant professional handling and maintenance.

Another problem, due to the small size is that devices of this nature can be built in to structures. Fukushima comes to mind. The Israeli's were doing the camera security and some of the cameras looked like cylinder/gun triggers.

Now since Japan was allegedly selling fissionable material to Iran, one has to wonder if Fukushima was Israeli instigated rather than HAARP or natural event instigated. But who knows, other than the person with their finger on the red button?

Cheers - Dave

Can I say, in a nice way, that you're off your rocker? Did the International Zionist Conspiracy do the tsunami too? Did you notice there was a reactor meltdown and hydrogen explosion?

And why on earth would Japan bother to sell fissionable material to Iran, and how could Israel take such insane risks on something so mind-blowingly idiotic?

mbkennel

bobs_uruncle
reply to post by pauljs75

 

A 5" diameter sphere (4/3*pi*r^3*mass per cubic inch) of p239 is about 22.8kg, which is about 6.5kg higher than critical mass. A geometrically formed split payload weighing say 16.3kg's would only require and external detonator trigger and that could be accommodated easily. Total weight would be in the area of around 20kg or 50 lbs. What really concerns me about these things, is even though the handling is extremely dangerous during forming and assembly, it still doesn't require a lot of technical know-how to produce low yield nuclear devices. I almost laid out the plans to build one of these and thought better of it, you never know what or whom is reading these posts.

The ones that size require significant tritium boosting, and tritium decays and requires significant professional handling and maintenance.

Yes I know they require boosting and very specific geometry, I didn't want to get into the technology. As well there is cobalt and lithium, your basic LID cake hydrogen device ;-)

Another problem, due to the small size is that devices of this nature can be built in to structures. Fukushima comes to mind. The Israeli's were doing the camera security and some of the cameras looked like cylinder/gun triggers.

Now since Japan was allegedly selling fissionable material to Iran, one has to wonder if Fukushima was Israeli instigated rather than HAARP or natural event instigated. But who knows, other than the person with their finger on the red button?

Cheers - Dave

Can I say, in a nice way, that you're off your rocker? Did the International Zionist Conspiracy do the tsunami too? Did you notice there was a reactor meltdown and hydrogen explosion?

And why on earth would Japan bother to sell fissionable material to Iran, and how could Israel take such insane risks on something so mind-blowingly idiotic?

Because they could have, would that be a good reason? The Israeli's provided the camera security and monitoring systems for Fukushima. There has been quite a bit of information floating around concerning this subject. It has also been presented in past articles that Japan was selling fissionable materials to Iran. What is it we look for, Motive (sale of materials to an enemy), Means (camera systems in fukushima) and Opportunity (convert camera systems to contain questionable "devices")? And yes, I noticed there was a reactor meltdown, looks like three in fact, but it appears only the first was externally triggered. Funny how only the first reaction produced the huge vertical ejection of materials and not the other two.

As far as HAARP you do understand how it can be manipulated, right? By using "tipping points" the injected billions of watts can induce massive disturbances in earths systems. These people have had decades to learn through experimentation.

Cheers - Dave

mbkennel

PurpleDog UK
It is fair to say that the American troops trained to carry backpack nukes were of the same mindset as a modern anti-western terrorist today.

Nobody in special forces would agree to a plan to ruck in a nuke to a foreign city at peace and blow it up.

You should qualify that statement, it should probably read, "Nobody in special forces would agree to a plan to ruck in a nuke to a foreign city at peace and blow it up unless there were some resources that the US government, corporations or bankers wanted control of and couldn't get it any other way, except by extortion or action."

Iran and Afghanistan DID NOT have WMD's, between them however they do have Oil, Opium and many coveted rare earth metals. The "war on terror" should be renamed the "war for terror."

Cheers - Dave

Don't forget about the SADM, Special Atomic Demolitions Munitions, they are roughly backpack size as well and, IMO, probably responsible for the elevated tritium levels (700 times what was expected) at the WTC site as well as the Pallisades NY seismic spikes on Sept. 11 just prior to each tower's collapse.