News The Lost H bomb

I'm getting my incidents confused.

I thought the bombs over Palomares were live?
http://www.rense.com/general45/drop.htm and http://www.sonicbomb.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=86 suggests that they had live plutonium cores.

The one that had five of the six safety interlocks fail was over Goldsboro.

Lapp wrote in Kill and Overkill that each device involved in the Goldsboro incident was equipped with "six interlocking safety mechanisms, all of which had to be triggered in sequence to explode the bomb." Lapp said that "five of the six interlocks had been set off by the fall..." and thus, "only a single switch prevented the bomb from detonating and spreading fire and destruction over a wide area."
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http://www.ibiblio.org/bomb/story.html
 
The palomares incident they were on a training mission to practice for a real bomb on the soviet union so why would they put a live atomic core on it for a simple training mission. Yes some people think it had a live atomic core but every official report shows it to have had a dummy core inside and yes it did detonate but without its live core it was like a regular bomb.
 
jinglesassy said:
The palomares incident they were on a training mission to practice for a real bomb on the soviet union so why would they put a live atomic core on it for a simple training mission.
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No training mission as such - it happened during a normal bomb patrol called "Operation Chrome Dome", during which bombers with live nuclear bombs flew a loop over the Mediterranean Sea, refueled a few times and returned to the USA. That was at a time where the bulk of the strategic nuclear arsenal was airdropped.

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Chrome_Dome"]Operation Chrome Dome - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
 
And that detonation was the explosives packed around the live core. Yes the charges went off but didn't go off in the right sequence to send the core critical. As Urwumpe pointed out, these were live warheads.
 
garyw said:
And that detonation was the explosives packed around the live core. Yes the charges went off but didn't go off in the right sequence to send the core critical. As Urwumpe pointed out, these were live warheads.
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Exactly - a nuclear plutonium based package requires not only exact timing of the explosion of each explosive pack around the plutonium primary, but also very accurate and reliable explosives, so you can form explosive lens.

If this wouldn't be so hard, anybody could build nuclear bombs.

If you have poor explosives (that for example don't burn at precise speeds), or bad timing (eg during a crash), the explosion will just squeeze the plutonium out of the bomb without causing a proper nuclear reaction, it fizzles.
 
Here's a noteworthy Broken Arrow incident.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Bluff,_South_Carolina
Long story short - don't yank out a bomb's emergency release pin in the bomb bay of a B-47.

The USAF isn't the only force with a spotty record though. Here's just one example of a USN "oops" moment from http://www.prop1.org/2000/accident/1989/8907a1.htm
In 1981, the Department of Defense admitted there had been a nuclear weapons accident 15 years earlier. The entire confession read as follows: "At Sea, Pacific: An A-4 aircraft loaded with one nuclear weapon rolled off the elevator of a U.S. aircraft carrier and fell into the sea. The pilot, aircraft and equipment were lost. The incident occurred more than 500 miles from land."
What actually happened is far more politically explosive. In December 1965, the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga left bombing operations off the coast of North Vietnam and headed for Yokosuka, Japan, where crew and officers would get a rest. On December 5, an A4-E Skyhawk attack jet rolled off an elevator and sank, with the pilot and one B43 thermonuclear bomb, into 16,000 feet of water. The ship was indeed 500 miles from land—mainland China. In between the accident site and the Chinese mainland, however, lay miles of open ocean and one of the Pacific's most adamantly antinuclear nations, Japan. The nearest point of land, part of the Ryukyu island chain, was a scant 80 miles away.
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Moral of the story? Don't let planes roll off carrier decks, especially if said planes are armed with thermonuclear weapons. But if this has taught us anything, it's that if all else fails...DON'T ADMIT IT!:lol:
 
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Turbinator said:
What the heck, why would the "atmosphere" of the Sun be a huge order of a magnitude higher than the surface?
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That's exactly the question the physicists are asking. If you find out, you might just get a Nobel Prize.
 
RisingFury said:
I thought "broken arrow" was a code to call in all available air and artillery support...
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No, "Broken Arrow" are all kinds of accidents involving nuclear weapons.
 
Urwumpe said:
No, "Broken Arrow" are all kinds of accidents involving nuclear weapons.
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Technically a "broken arrow" is a weapon accidentally detonated or jettisoned. If one is lost or stolen, it's an "empty quiver". Of course the codes may have been changed since it's a long time since I last tried to steal a nuke.
 
RisingFury said:
:thumbup:

Yea, maybe they got changed. I heard "broken arrow" several times in the context of air and artillery support in Vietnam war.
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Keep in mind that any nuke-related codeword is preceded by PINNACLE. If you hear "Pinnacle - broken arrow" then it's time to duck and cover.

EDIT: "Pinnacle" is any report that is of interest to the NCA or DoD so a detonation or loss of live nuke would definitely be at the pinnacle of it (pun intended). Bent Spear (mishandling or breach of protocol during transportation of manipulation of nukes), Dull Sword (incidents causing reduced effectiveness of nuclear delivery systems or such) and Faded Giant (radiological events not related to nuclear weapons) are not at "pinnacle" level.
 
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From the Titan I TO:

3-41. BROKEN ARROW (nuclear accident). An unexpected event involving nuclear weapons or AEC components that results in detonation (nuclear or non-nuclear), radio-active contamination, loss or destruction of AEC components or a public hazard is defined as broken arrow. TO. 11-N-4-1 contains definition of nuclear or non-nuclear components.

3-42. BENT SPEAR (nuclear incident). An unexpected event that results in damage, malfunction or failure of a nuclear weapon or component to the extend, that rework or complete replacement by AEC is necessary to render the weapon safe is defined vent spear. In addition, bent spear may be an event which requires examination of nuclear weapon(s) or component(s) by the AEC to insure operational capability.

3-43. DULL SWORD (nuclear safety deficiency). An unexpected event or procedure that could contribute to a nuclear accident/incident as a result of nuclear safety deficiencies is defined as dull sword. These deficiencies are as follows:

a. Damage to a nuclear weapon that USAF field units are authorized to correct, such as bent fins or scratches.

b. A deliberate unauthorized act which degrades the reliability, safety or security of a nuclear weapon.

c. Failure/malfunction of handling, loading, storage, maintenance, transportation, and test equipment.

d. Damage/malfunction of suspension and release systems, when a nuclear weapon is involved.

e. Lightning strikes on missile, or ground handling equipment loaded with a nuclear weapon; or any time the commander suspects that lightning has degraded the safety or reliability of a nuclear weapon system.

f. Failure of personnel to adhere to established nuclear safety procedures.

g. Circumstances affecting nuclear safety that are deemed reportable by the MCCC.

--------------------------

There is also "Seven High" and "Redskin" notifications, that are about intruders and sabotage on nuclear sites.
 
" I don't know what's scarrier... that we lost a nuclear weapon or that it happens so often that we have a name for it!"
 
The nuke was actually only half of it and it never blew up on impact, this was really long time ago back after like WWII even farther around 1966, the f-86 was bringing this bomb somewhere but since the f-18 fighter jets radar malfunstioned it crashed into the f-86 carrying the bomb, the bomb was armed to be a nuke because the other half which was at some base Forgot were, but that was the core of the Hydrogen bomb. The plane was flying over georgia i believe when the f-18 crashd into it. The pilot took emergency steps to rescue the crew, and had to land on a nearby runway. He dropped the bomb into the ocean atleast 6-12 miles off the coast of georgia and the water acted as a somewhat cusion and the sand is what cusioned the fall of the bomb and it never exploded. The US has been searching for over 7 years and never found it.

Those this answer some of your questions. If not then ask away and by the way This was on the Military Channel. :P
 
since the f-18 fighter jets radar malfunstioned it crashed into the f-86 carrying the bomb
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F-18s crashing into F-86s? F-86s carrying nuclear bombs?

I think there is a critical research error there somewhere...
 
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