OT: The cold war sure had some odd weapons

[JohnDillworth]

How about an unguided air to air rocket with a 1.5 kiloton nuclear warhead?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIR-2_Genie

[Terminus]

What's most interesting about that one is how light it was, considering the explosive power.

[bradfordkay]

I think that the thread title should have been "The cold war sure had some idiotic weapons!".  [:'(]

[Cap Mandrake]

The 102 mm recoiless Davy Crocket launcher, 20 tons of TNT equivalent warhead , range 1.2 miles [:D][:D]

A small team in a jeep was supposed to set up the tripod on the edge of clearing or something and stop a batallion of Soviet tanks. Presumably, they were advised to "duck and cover"

The M-388 could be launched from either of two launchers known as the Davy Crockett Weapon System(s): the 4-inch (102 mm) M28, with a range of about 1.25 mi (2 km), or the 6.1-in (155 mm) M29, with a range of 2.5 mi (4 km). Both weapons used the same projectile, and could be mounted on a tripod launcher or carried by truck or armored personnel carrier. They were operated by a three-man crew.[2]


MuseumBoth recoilless guns proved to have poor accuracy in testing, so the shell's greatest effect would have been its extreme radiation hazard. Even at a low yield setting, the M-388 would produce an almost instantly lethal radiation dosage (in excess of 10,000 rem) within 500 feet (150 m), and a probably fatal dose (around 600 rem) within a quarter mile (400 m).[3][X(]

[AW1Steve]

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

How about an unguided air to air rocket with a 1.5 kiloton nuclear warhead?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIR-2_Genie

If you think about what it was designed for it wasn't quite so stupid. It was designed for , and only for MASSED air attacks. Kind of like the ones against cities in WW2. Think of the effect of a "1,000 bomber raid" facing a Genie![X(]

And to preempt the next pair of questions 1) would that ever happen again? and 2) why would they use big formations with a nuke? The answer is that as late as 1957 the USAF didn't have enough nukes to destroy every major Russian target. After the nukes were used, the plan was to return to conventional bombing. That means lots and lots of bombers over the same target at the same time. The feeling was (and they really had no intell one way or the other--this was Pre-U-2 or satillite) was that the Russians had even fewer bombs. So sooner or later WW2 style bombing raids would have to ensue. [8|]

[Kwik E Mart]

i believe this was the West's best weapon...

[Mark VII]

The Genie would be great for punching holes in some WitP uber CAP.[8D]

[Ambassador]

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

How about an unguided air to air rocket with a 1.5 kiloton nuclear warhead?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIR-2_Genie

I'm remember using it... in the Avalon Hill boardgame Flight Leader.[8D]

[khyberbill]

What's most interesting about that one is how light it was, considering the explosive power.

The warhead, a W25, was certainly very small. I was the radiation guru on a sub and while I was never permitted near the atomic weapons when they were "working" on them, I was involved on occasion and they were not big. IIRC the W25 was fitted on the Subroc and the W34 on the Mark 45 torpedo. For those of you wondering why I mentioned "working", well, we never worked on nuclear weapons. Once every year or so though we pretended to work on them and part of this observed drill, the weapon "fell on the floor and broke open". My responsibility was to contain the the radioactive spill and direct cleanup. How an atomic bomb could fall a few inches and break open was never explained to me. I am glad we never fired a Mark 45 in anger because not only would we have sunk the bad guys, but probably us as well!