Nuclear Weapons (aka 'Instant Sunshine')

[TsrJoe]

French AN.22 free fall tactical nuclear store designed for carriage on the Dassault Mirage IV

[TsrJoe]

unfortunately i dont have a copy of the magazine but i found this profile online of a MiG.25 with IAB.500 dummy nuclear stores. ref. Flieger revue extra #22

[KJ_Lesnick]

joncarrfarelly,

Timeline of the Nuclear Age:
http://www.atomicarchive.com/Timeline/Time1950.shtml

1952 : October 3 - First British atomic bomb, "Hurricane," was tested at Monte Bello Islands, Australia, with a yield of 25 kilotons.

1957: November 8 - Britain's first truly successful thermonuclear bomb test. The bomb had a yield of 1.8 megatons.

1960: February 13 - The first French nuclear test occurs at Reganne, Algeria, in the Sahara Desert. It has a yield of 60-70 kilotons.

1964: October 16 - China explodes its first atomic bomb at the Lop Nur test site. It was an uranium 235 implosion fission device named
                             "596" and has a yield of 22 kilotons.

1968: August 24 - France tests its first hydrogen bomb at Fangataufa Atoll in the South Pacific. It has a yield of 2.6 megatons.

Thank you.

Out of curiosity:  When did the UK, the French, and the USSR first actually field a A-bomb and H-bomb?  Also when was the first time they were able to get the size of the weapons down to size where they could be used on ICBM's, large SAM's, and AAM/ASM's and torpedoes?


KJ Lesnick

[Jeffry Fontaine]

You find WHIFs in the strangest places.  Here is a link to a couple of larger images of a couple of WHIF nukes on a page devoted to spacecraft and spaceflight. 


(image source: Used with permission from © 1998 - 2007 by Terry L. Sunday)

There are additional images on the linked page for other fictional subjects that may be of interest.  Things like an interplanetary nuclear guided missile based on the moon.  The Sprint ABM model is truly a work of beauty...


Another item that may prove worthwhile is this link to a Czech page on Russian bombs and other ordnance things Ruská letecká výzbroj (which is part of this website: www.military.cz/) and provides a decent profile drawing of the IAB-500 tactical nuclear bomb shape which can be found under the section titled: Ruská letecká výzbroj - bomby. 

Cvičná bomba IAB-500 určená k imitaci jaderného výbuchu
(image source: www.military.cz/)

[alertken]

KJL, #32: I have these:

UK: gravity A-Bomb: on 11/10/56 a Squadron Valiant made a live drop of unlicenced Fat Man variant Blue Danube, reported yield in the range 16-25KT. 8 were deployed in a Valiant Sqdn. progressively through 1957, 8 in a Vulcan 1 Sqdn. 21/5/57, 8 shared by 2 Victor 1 Sqdns. from 1/5/58.
- gravity H-Bomb: 5 Violet Club (Green Grass 0.33MT warhead) were available to 2 Vulcan 1 Sqdns. from 19/3/58. USSR's Secret Weapon, they were withdrawn by end-1959; Yellow Sun Mk.1 (same warhead) was deployed from early-1960 in Vulcan 1/Victor 1.
All other UK indigenous effort, spread over ADMs, underwater weapons, SSM/ASM/AAM/SAM, lapsed after 4 August, 1958: US/UK Agreement for Co-operation on Uses of Atomic Energy for Mutual Defense Purposes.

France: it is not reported that any US Intellectual Property was involved in the French programme.
gravity A-Bomb: 1/10/64: 36 Mirage IVA, AN-11;
ASM: 1988: Mirage IVP, ASMP ASM (TN-81 warhead, 300KT);
FBM: 1971: M-1 (MR-41 warhead, 0.5MT);
SSM: 8/71: 18 S-2 SSBS (MR-31 warhead, 120KT).

[KJ_Lesnick]

Wasn't there a nuclear bomb proposal made in the early 1940's (United States) that used a moderator to compensate for the fact that the Uranium wasn't sufficiently enriched?  Maybe it was called a Mark 2 or something?

[sagallacci]

Maybe a reflector rather than a moderator? A moderator would make things LESS reactive. I seem to recall something about mixed plutonium and uranium to get around both enrichment requirements for U235 and the touchy fissioning of Pu, and possibly the slow rate of production of fissionables in general early on?

[KJ_Lesnick]

Sagallacci,

Maybe a reflector rather than a moderator? A moderator would make things LESS reactive. I seem to recall something about mixed plutonium and uranium to get around both enrichment requirements for U235 and the touchy fissioning of Pu, and possibly the slow rate of production of fissionables in general early on?

I'm not an expert on nuclear weapons, so I don't honestly know

[spike7451]

Some nice pics of 'special weapons' here

http://photobucket.com/albums/v20/jinxx1/N...lear%20devices/

including WE177 - I'd love to get a better look at those Tornado pictures!

We used to have to do a practice load every month when I was at Bruggen in the late 80's.We worked as a four man load team,in pairs & we always worked in the same pair.Reason for this was to be able to spot possible sabotage by the other team member.Everything had to be done in order & from a 'load crib sheet'.
On QRA when you were loading the real thing,we were armed with a 9mil Browning &,on the floor of the HAS was a red outline of a Tornado & you had orders to shoot anyone who crossed it as well as anyone in your team sabotaging the load.
During the run up to Op Granby,the practice loads increased to one a week.
After Bruggen closed & was handed to the British Army,only around 2005,nearly ten years after the RAF left,did the locals discover we had nukes at Bruggen!



Practice Tornado armed with WE-177 & Drop Tank.

[rickshaw]

What do the white "x"s signify on the WE177s?   Practice rounds?

[spike7451]

What do the white "x"s signify on the WE177s?   Practice rounds?

Not quite.The are gas ejection warning triangles there as on the real thing the are sensors that 'pop' out when they are dropped.The white 'X' s just mean that the gas systems/sensors are not there.

For the one on the back of the bomb,that's where the retardation chute pops out of.

[PR19_Kit]

Spike,

.....We used to have to do a practice load every month when I was at Bruggen in the late 80's.....

You must have been there at the same time as my daughter then!

Cpl Calder in Air Traffic, married to a Rock Ape nicknamed 'Igor'.  Did you ever come across them?

[spike7451]

I was at Bruggen 88-91 & 93-96.Dont recall the names,sorry.Mind you,The only rocks I knew were in the GDT cell from the time I was in the Armoury.

[NARSES2]

Interesting photo's Spike. I never realised how "small" the things are  Still have visions of Dr Strangelove and the "cowboy"

[Aircav]

There's a WE177 at the North East Aircraft Museum and most people just walk past not realising what it is.

http://www.clash-of-steel.org/gallery/pages/view_entry.php?image_number=160