ONE switch away from 4MT nuclear detonation in NC in 1961

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Winston

Lorenzo von Matterhorn
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The final switch: Goldsboro, 1961

https://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2013/09/27/final-switch-goldsboro-1961/

“All of the sudden now that weapon system [the Mk-39] is free. As the weapon dropped, power was now coming on, and the arming rods were pulled, the baroswitches began to operate.1 The next thing on the timing sequence was for the parachute to deploy. When it hit the ground, it tried to fire.” “There was still one safety device that had not operated. And that one safety device was the pre-arming switch which is operated by a 28 volt signal.” “Some people could say, hey, the bomb worked exactly like designed. Others can say, all but one switch operated, and that one switch prevented the nuclear detonation.” “Unfortunately there had been some 30-some incidents where the ready-safe switch was operated inadvertently. We’re fortunate that the weapons involved at Goldsboro were not suffering from that same malady.”

Before the accident, the manual arming pin in each of the bombs was in place. Although the pins required horizontal movement for extraction, they were both on a lanyard to allow the crew to pull them from the cockpit. During the breakup, the aircraft experienced structural distortion and torsion in the weapons bay sufficient to pull the pin from one of the bombs, thus arming the Bisch generator.2 The Bisch generator then provided internal power to the bomb when the pullout cable was extracted by the bomb falling from the weapons bay. The operation of the baroswitch arming system,3 parachute deployment, timer operation,4 low and high voltage thermal batteries activation, and delivery of the fire signal at the impact by the crush switch all followed as a natural consequence of the bombing falling free with an armed Bisch generator. The nonoperation of the cockpit-controlled ready-safe switch prevented nuclear detonation of the bomb. The other bomb, which free-fell, experienced HE detonation upon impact. One of the secondary subassemblies was not recovered.5

[video=youtube;F2wR11pGsYk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2wR11pGsYk[/video]

1961-Goldsboro-M39-453x600.jpg


Mk-39-ready-safe-switch-600x360.jpg
 
FYI, I'm pro-nuke. We've come close, but they've prevented another world war IMO.

US nuclear weapon diversity over time

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Number of US nuclear weapons over time

US_nuclear_warheads_1945-2002_graph.png
 
I too am Pro Nuke! I wish we would use them to tune up the Middle East. It makes me sad that we don't use them.
 
I too am Pro Nuke! I wish we would use them to tune up the Middle East. It makes me sad that we don't use them.

Treading awfully close to the line in regards to politics.

This forum isn't the place for that kind of discussion; I trust this is the end of it. This thread won't be long for this world, if it's not.

-Kevin
 
Not that it has happened, but please avoid politics. It is an interesting historical event and near miss.

Shoot Kevin beat me to it.
 
Not that it has happened, but please avoid politics. It is an interesting historical event and near miss.
Yes, the only reason I mentioned my position on nuclear weapons is because I realised this thread might be misinterpreted as anti-nuke which I definitely am not. To be "pro-nuke" should not be interpreted as pro-use which I am not. It's the "Sword of Damocles" MAD deterrent that has obviously worked and will continue to work as the nuclear powers become ever more economically intertwined that I believe is their value. A very recent study has conclusively shown that "war" between chimpanzees is not due to any external factors, it is in their nature, so war is in our nature, too, and it's best that any large conventional wars be deterred by that nuclear Sword of Damocles.

Nature of war: Chimps inherently violent; Study disproves theory that 'chimpanzee wars' are sparked by human influence
September 17, 2014

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140917131816.htm
 
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Well if you see a chimp with a nuclear weapon you should be scared then.....we are not chimps though so should have more sense/intelligence.

Personally i have always wondered how an accidental megaton range bang might have affected cold war weapons policy. Being close to having an accident is nothing like the same as actually having one for its effects on peoples thinking.

Sadly for humankind we always seem to need a bodycount before we wise up.
 
I wonder if we had had an accident like the one described and the nuke had actually detonated, would our government have admitted the accident? Or would we have blamed an enemy, and what would that have led too?

My worry with nukes is not so much that a major nuclear power like the US, Russia, China, Etc. will use them in war (MAD works in a crazy way) or that we'll have an accident. My worry is that one of the crazy nations will use them, maybe Pakistan or North Korea will decide to pop off one of these firecrackers, and then all hell will break lose.
 
Safeties have advanced quite a bit since the "Wild West" days of the '50s an '60s. This accident, and others like it, spurred development of advanced safety measures and things like enable codes and Permissive Action Link. Added safety measures, which I won't discuss make the current weapon systems very safe. I remember attending the Nuclear Weapons Orientation Course in the early 2000s and learned the history, physics, and design of nuclear weapons.

Having worked with them, studied them, and planned their use, I'd never advocate use except in the most dire of circumstances. Suffice it to say though, they exist and will always be around.

Mike


Launching rockets (or missiles in my case) is so easy a chimp could do it. Read a step, do a step, eat a banana.

Sent from my iPad Air using Rocketry Forum.
 
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FYI, I'm pro-nuke. We've come close, but they've prevented another world war IMO.

They also destroyed the USSR. Not with any that exploded , but with the cost of developing and maintaining such a huge arsenal. I'm afraid the strain was more than the government and country could bear.
 
... My worry with nukes is not so much that a major nuclear power like the US, Russia, China, Etc. will use them in war (MAD works in a crazy way) or that we'll have an accident. My worry is that one of the crazy nations will use them, maybe Pakistan or North Korea will decide to pop off one of these firecrackers, and then all hell will break lose.

Yes. One of the problems of terrorists/terrorism is that they are not a nation with borders per se, so it's hard to put a nation in the "cross hairs". If that happens the public will likely want an "eye for an eye" response. For that reason we have to rely a ton on intelligence assets and the SOCOM teams to "take care of business" before we have an "extreme event" in asymmetrical warfare.

Just recently re-watched the "Sum of All Fears" (Clancy's books are way better than the movie adaptations, but that's really not saying much) and re-watcing the second season of "24". I'm hoping neither of those scenarios play out for real.

For more information on "N" accidents in the US (one involved a BOMARC launch site) ...

https://www.hps1.org/aahp/public/AA...clear Weapons Accidents - Leasons Learned.pdf

Greg
 
The discussion about nuclear weapons always reminds me of Chekhov's gun-

"Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there."

BTW, I also recently discovered the blog this story came from - very good. It is interesting that it is about "nuclear secrecy" rather than just the tech end of these things. The psychological workings behind the bombs and the bomb-making-and-deployment complex are fascinating/terrifying.
 
I kind of don't understand what is being said about this accident. Let's see if I get this right, the plane blew up causing the bomb to be dropped, causing a bunch of stuff happens automatically that is part of setting it off. But the button was never pushed, so it didn't blow up. The only "almost" was that dropping unarmed nukes to the ground is a bad idea because it's not certain enough it won't go off even if no other preparatory steps occur. Scary, but not exactly what John Oliver turned it into a couple of months ago (although that I hadn't heard of it was still shocking).
 
I kind of don't understand what is being said about this accident. Let's see if I get this right, the plane blew up causing the bomb to be dropped, causing a bunch of stuff happens automatically that is part of setting it off. But the button was never pushed, so it didn't blow up. The only "almost" was that dropping unarmed nukes to the ground is a bad idea because it's not certain enough it won't go off even if no other preparatory steps occur. Scary, but not exactly what John Oliver turned it into a couple of months ago (although that I hadn't heard of it was still shocking).

I think the bigger issue was the carrying of armed weapons as part of our bomber force at that time. After the incidents off of France and Georgia armed alert was ended in 1968. Dumb that it took that long; ICBMs and subs were already far ahead in strike capability to bombers. Main advantage to the bomber is it is slow (even a B-1) and can be recalled. Nuclear hubris and the Soviet threat blinded the military into needing nukes in the air on alert.

I am an airman and a missileer; none of my compatriots nor I EVER wanted to be turning those keys. I was on alert when President Bush pulled us off nuclear alert in the Minuteman II in September 1991. At that time it seemed the world was getting safer. With current events, I fear we are drifting back into not only a new Cold War, but a more dangerous nuclear world. We had better be ready. Thankfully, there are men and women standing alert still, ready to react. Hopefully, never to be used, but as I said, we need to be vigilant and ready for anything. The world is still a dangerous place.

Please don't take this as political! Merely trying to be a realist.


Launching rockets (or missiles in my case) is so easy a chimp could do it. Read a step, do a step, eat a banana.

Sent from my iPad Air using Rocketry Forum.
 
So ponder this for a bit; how good are the failsafe systems on the Russian, Chinese, Indian, Pakistani and, this should really be scary, the North Korean nukes? Its scary to think about what we would do if one of our nukes had accidentally gone off in the U.S., but what happens if a North Korean nuke goes off in North Korea?
 
If you want something that will tell you just how close the US came to disaster (several times), read Command and Control.

My dad was a B-52 crewman for over 10 years, including during airborne alerts and Vietnam, and even he found the book a bit eye-opening.

-Kevin
 
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If you want something that will tell you just how close the US came to disaster (several times), read Command and Control.

My dad was a B-52 crewman for over 10 years, including during airborne alerts and Vietnam, and even he found the book a bit eye-opening.

-Kevin
Bought it a while ago based upon reviews of it and content from it posted elsewhere, but still haven't gotten around to reading it.
 
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Well if you see a chimp with a nuclear weapon you should be scared then.....we are not chimps though so should have more sense/intelligence.
From a quick glance at history and the daily news, we obviously don't.
 
Nuke the whales!

Reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw once....Nuke the gay baby whales for Jesus. Billed as a bumper sticker to offend everyone...


Launching rockets (or missiles in my case) is so easy a chimp could do it. Read a step, do a step, eat a banana.

Sent from my iPad Air using Rocketry Forum.
 
Reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw once....Nuke the gay baby whales for Jesus. Billed as a bumper sticker to offend everyone...


Launching rockets (or missiles in my case) is so easy a chimp could do it. Read a step, do a step, eat a banana.

Sent from my iPad Air using Rocketry Forum.

Realized after posting this I may have strayed. Was trying to be humorous and not offensive....


Launching rockets (or missiles in my case) is so easy a chimp could do it. Read a step, do a step, eat a banana.

Sent from my iPad Air using Rocketry Forum.
 
Cool.

The US is holding on to some varieties of nuclear warheads previously scheduled for disassembly to defend the Earth against rogue asteroids

"As noticed by The Wall Street Journal, a 67-page Government Accountability Office report on the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said that some US nuclear warhead components that were scheduled to be disassembled by next year are in fact being kept whole to be used to defend the Earth against a potential asteroid impact. The report specifically states that some warheads "are being retained in an indeterminate state pending a senior-level government evaluation of their use in planetary defense against earthbound asteroids."

https://www.theverge.com/2014/10/1/...weapons-to-defend-the-earth-against-asteroids
 
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