- Not to be confused with the "nuclear trunk", a term for the device used to certify the launch of nuclear weapons.
Nuclear device suitcases (also luggage bombs , nuke backpack , mini-nuke and nuke pockets ) is a hypothetical tactical nuclear weapon that is portable enough to use a suitcase as its delivery method.
Both the United States and the Soviet Union developed a small enough nuclear weapon to be portable in a specially designed backpack during the 1950s and 1960s.
The maximum yield of W54 warheads used in Special Atomic Demolition Munition (pictured) is 1kt (1000 tons TNT). It is actually larger and heavier than the US W48 nuclear with a diameter of 155mm (6.1 inches) and a length of 846mm (33.3 inches) and a weight of 53.5Kg (118lb) representing complete, complete, and demoted physical packets. producing 72 tons of TNT. Ted Taylor's nuclear weapons designer alleged that the 105 mm (4.1 inch) diameter shell with the 19kg mass is theoretically possible. In contrast, a reduction beyond the W54 size means that a linear blast design should be used and the neutron reflector is nullified with ('bare nucleus') so that the mass of the fissile material increases dramatically while the explosive results decrease dramatically. The Taylor character represents the minimum size and mass to maintain Prompt Criticality but the duration without tamper or neutron reflection will be short. The slope of exponential growth, the estimated number of fission and specific fissile material are not recorded. Neptunium 236 is fissile and has the smallest and lightest critical mass but isolation Specific radionuclides make it an impractical choice. Some new fissile material is known but U235 and Pu239 are the only practical choices although 2 US tests using U233 (critical mass about 32% less than U235) have occurred.
Carey Sublette stated that neither the United States nor the Soviet Union had ever publicized the existence or development of weapons small enough to fit into a normal-sized suitcase or bag. The W48 However, does it fit the small, easily disguised and portable criteria.
In the mid-1970s, the debate shifted from the possibility of developing such a device for the military to worry about its possible use in terrorism. This concept became the subject of the spy thriller genre in the Cold War era.
Video Suitcase nuclear device
Etymology
The term "luggage bomb (nuclear/atomic)" was introduced in the 1950s with the prospect of reducing the size of the smallest tactical nuclear weapon even further, though purely as a "metaphor" for miniaturization, not necessarily for actual luggage delivery.
Maps Suitcase nuclear device
Overview
The value of a portable nuclear weapon lies in their ability to be easily smuggled across borders, transported by widely available means, and placed as close to the target as possible. In the design of nuclear weapons, there is a tradeoff in the design of small arms between weight and compact size. Very small (as small as 5 inches (13 cm) in diameter and 24.4 inches (62 cm) long) blast type weapons, which may fit in a large suitcase or a typical suitcase, have been tested, but the lightest of them is nearly  £ 100 45 kg) and has a maximum yield of only 0.19 kilotons (the Swift nuclear device, tested in the Yuma Operation Redwing test on May 27, 1956) The greatest result of a relatively compact explosive linear device is under 2 kilotons to be canceled (or never deployed but apparently tested) US W82-1 artillery shell design, with results under 2 kilotons for  £ 95 (43 kg) 6.1 inch (15 cm) artillery shell with a diameter and 34 inches (86 cm) in length.
USSR
Stanislav Lunev, the highest-ranking GRU defector, claims that the Russian-made device exists and explains it in more detail. The device, "identified as RA-115 (or RA-115-01s for submersible weapons)" weighs from fifty to sixty pounds. They can last for years if connected to a power source. If there is a power loss, there is a battery backup. If the battery is running low, the weapon has a transmitter sending either a satellite-coded message or directly to a GRU post at a Russian embassy or consulate. According to Lunev, the number of "lost" nuclear devices (as found by General Lebed) "is almost identical to the number of strategic targets used for the bomb."
Lunev suggested that luggage nukes may have been deployed by GRU co-operatives on US soil to kill US leaders in the event of war. He alleges that the armory is hidden by the KGB in many countries. They were fitted with mines with "Lightning" explosive devices. One such cache, identified by Vasili Mitrokhin, exploded as the Swiss authorities sprayed it with a high-pressure water pistol in a wooded area near Bern. Some other cache successfully removed. Lunev said he personally sought a hideout for an arsenal in the Shenandoah Valley area and that it was "surprisingly easy to smuggle nuclear weapons into the US" either crossing the Mexican border or using small transport missiles that could slip undetected when launched. from Russian aircraft. US Congressman Curt Weldon endorsed claims by Lunev but noted that Lunev had "exaggerations" according to the FBI. The search for areas identified by Lunev has been done, "but law enforcement officials have never found such arsenals, with or without portable nuclear weapons."
Former Russia National Security Advisor Aleksandr was fired in an interview with the news magazine CBS Sixty Minutes on 7 September 1997 claiming that the Russian military has lost track of more than a hundred of a total of 250 "nuclear suitcase sizes". Lebed stated that the device was made to look like a suitcase, and that he had learned about their existence just a few years earlier. The Russian Federal Agency on Atomic Energy on September 10 dismissed Lebed's claim as unfounded. US Congressman Curt Weldon revived the question in 1999, displaying a "notional model" of what Russian "nuke suitcase" might look like at a hearing on October 26, and "railing against the Clinton administration for not aggressively questioning the Russian government about its existence and hiding location KGB weapons are hidden in the United States. "
United States
The lightest nuclear warhead ever claimed to have been manufactured by the United States is the W54, which is used both at Davy Crockett, 120 mm absorption released from a wind rifle, and a version carrying a backpack called Mk-54 SADM (Special Atomic Demolition Munition). The bare warhead package is 11 in by 16 in (28 cm 41 cm, small enough to fit in a footlocker size container) weighing 51 pounds (23 kg).
Former Deputy Defense Minister for Intelligence Michael Vickers claims that he, along with other Green Berets special forces, is practicing Warsaw Pact countries with backpack-sized nuclear weapons, with a mission to "detonate portable nuclear bombs."
In 1994, the United States Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1994, preventing the government from developing nuclear weapons of less than 5 kilotons, thereby making the official development of these weapons in the US infringing law. This law, however, is repealed in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004 .
Israel
The allegations were made in the 1990s for the effect that nuclear luggage bombs had been developed by Israel during the 1970s.
See also
References
External links
- Nuclear Suitcases by the National Terror Warning Response Center
- Suitcase Nukes: Lost Luggage Permanently by SAST REPORT
- Alexander Lebed and Suitcase Nukes
- Is the Luggage Bomb Possible?
- "Suitcase Nukes": A reassessment, article 2002 by the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies
- Photo of W54 SADM by Brookings Institution
- Symposium: Al Qaeda Nuclear by Jamie Glazov, FrontPage Magazine, October 27, 2006.
- Articles that discuss the development of smaller nuclear weapons in the US.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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