Interesting bit of History - The Davy Crockett

DannyinJapan

DannyinJapan

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Oct 9, 2003
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I don't know how I ever missed hearing about this weapon, but I think it is quite interesting. Especially given the time of its' development and deployment. (the 50's)
The M-388 Davy Crockett was a 20ton nuclear weapon fired from a recoilless rifle. It's about the same size as an anti-tank rocket and had a range of around 2 miles.
750px-DavyCrockettBomb.jpg
 
a photo of the test firing result
DavyNuketest.jpg

settable to 10 or 20 tons, at 20 - 100% lethal radiation dose to 500 yds. 90% fatal for another 400, 2100 davies made...
not particularly accurate, but was designed as an area denial weapon to slow down a soviet invasion of europe.

shoulda sold some to the georgians.
 
I was just thinking...if they were able to make a nuclear weapon of that size 50 years ago, how small and accurate are they now?
 
I can create a nuclear weapon.
Just give me a couple of those little Juan burritos from the gas station and some of Blair's super hot hot sauce. Usually take me 24 hours, though....

stand back boys, it's kiloton time!!!
:)
 
I recall reading briefly about the Davy Crockett after having watched "Return of the Living Dead", the climax of which features the use of nuclear artillery.
 
kronckew said:
smallest nuclear weapon <-linky
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That isn't the smallest, nor the smallest known to the public as the article asserts.
The W66 -- a 20 kT 3rd gen Enhanced Radiation "Neutron Bomb" warhead for our 8" guns exists(ed), which would, of necessity, be smaller than the 10.6" quoted in the article.

There was also a 2 kT warhead for 155mm artillery.
 
I don't think I'd be all that excited about exploding a nuclear device within a maximum range of two miles from me, although I suppose if you had to do it it would be because otherwise you were SOL anyways.

This kind of stuff scares hell out of me. I wonder how people who actually know about all this stuff out there can even sleep at night. They must feel like the end of the world is near every day.
 
C.S. Graves said:
Which is, I'm told, how many North Americans felt in the depths of the Cold War 60's... even here in Canuckistan.
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And even in the late '40's- early '50's.:(
We moved from Orofino Idaho to Everett Washington in 1953 where I first learned about the, "Duck and Cover" drills in school, Everett is right next to Seattle and Seattle was considered to be a nuke target for the Russians. I was 13 and in the 7th grade and after the first D&C drill I worried a lot about being vaporized or even worse, dieing from exposure to radiation. I remember a lot of the younger kids in school were definitely traumatized on the D&C drill days and I'd almost bet they had more than their share of bad dreams and nightmares for at least a few days afterward.:(
I was old enough to know that if I was close enough to ground zero to see the flash that it was pretty much useless to get under your desk and use your notebook to protect yourself from the flying glass.:rolleyes: :grumpy: :(
I guess some inland area schools were close enough to probable targets to have the D&C drills in their schools but evidently we never lived in one of those areas as I can't recall any but those in Everett.
 
Yvsa said:
I was old enough to know that if I was close enough to ground zero to see the flash that it was pretty much useless to get under your desk and use your notebook to protect yourself from the flying glass.:rolleyes: :grumpy: :(
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Touché, ol' chap. That, and then even if you survive that, one has to contend with the highly carcinogenic fallout which would inevitably come raining down everywhere. A person might almost wish they were one of those shadows burned into the sidewalk instead. :(
 
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I wonder how people who actually know about all this stuff out there can even sleep at night.
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Many of us worked rotating shifts, which made sleeping chancy anyway.

How about watching nuclear-armed soviet bombers making regular practice runs at your position?
 
From what I understand, the podunk little town of 7,000 people where I went to elementary school and high school was supposedly something like target number 8 or something when the Soviets were to drop their birds. It appears that a factory in town manufactured some crucial component for our warheads.

You think about places like D.C. and NYC being blown off the map, not little dinky little towns in Indiana surround by cornfields.

From what I understand, the duck and cover drills were just implemented to keep order and maybe allow more naive kids to sleep at night. The schools couldn't very well tell grade school children to lay down and die if they saw a flash.

Scary times that thankfully I was on the backside of. Of course, things look to be maybe be swinging back that way again if this latest little Georgian/Russia standoff indicates anything:(
 
Kick AZZ!!! I like IT!! :)

They also had shoulder mounted theater tactical nuclear weapons. Developed for use in the 70s - 80s . Now that is something we could use today - to make some glass in Arabia. To make the desert glow :D:thumbup:;)
 
We have a target close by. The electro-magnetic pulse from a big nuke is supposed to fry all electronics for a 50+ mile radius. Civil Defense recruited our local horse club to be dispatch riders.
Uplander
 
I have a network design guy at work that worked with those. We have had discussions about their implementation.

They were discontinued because there was no safety (launch codes) needed for launch and detonation. One guy and a jeep or three guys with packs could lug it to anywhere and do their deadly job.
BTW, the people launching it are within the blast radius and would have to dig a ditch or hide behind something pretty robust not to feel its effects.

BTW, according to him it would take a couple to knock down a sky scrapper.

Figuring that the average nuke currently in inventory has a 2 megaton warhead with "dial-a-yield" technology, and some of the B-52's have 25 megaton "Bunker Busters", the Davy Crocket is kinda like a fart in a can.

Scary when you think about it.
 
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