On the nukes, people used to wonder why my Dad always seemed to have a roll of lead tape in his tool box. Quality control wasn’t always the best, and they had local solutions for problems that cropped up.
There is no way of knowing what the Soviets had, except that any CIA estimates were highly inflated to protect their budget. Soviet manufacturing was not in the same universe as efficient, although their version of the military-industrial complex was more efficient and better funded that anything designed for civilians. KGB numbers are not much better, because the military didn’t get along with them. There were three power centers: the Party, the military, and the KGB. and their relations were not cordial after the death of Stalin. Essentially everyone lied a lot.
I don’t know why anyone would bother, as it would be a lot easier to tell the right people that you had a nuke and were going to use it without bothering to get one. The resultant panic would serve the same purpose. The Shrubbery got to have a war based in part by a non-existent Iraqi nuke.
]]>Little Feller I, a Nevada test on 17 July 1962 of the W54 Davy Crockett warhead (reportedly a scaled down version of the two-point implosion Swan fission device successfully tested as Redwing-Inca), this entire weapon casing was just 30 inches long and 11 inches in diameter at the widest point, and weighing just 51 pounds it was the smallest and lightest fission bomb ever deployed by the United States. In Little Feller I a live Davy Crockett warhead was fired from a 155 millimeter launcher Operation Ivy Flats and detonated at a height of burst of 20 feet some 9,357 feet (1.7 miles) from the launch point with a 0.018 kt yield yield. The test was the last atmospheric detonation at the Nevada test site, and was observed by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and presidential adviser General Maxwell D. Taylor (seen above in stills from the film of Operation Ivy Flats, which was finally declassified on 22 December 1997).
This quoted from the two-part edition of the U.S. Department of Defense’s ‘Secret – Restricted Data’ 1,651 p-p manual: Capabilities of Nuclear Weapons (DNA-EM-1, 1 July 1972). The image below is from that manual (which has since been declassified):
The USA since then have created small tactical nukes including nuclear land mines and weapons called SADM, excerpt from the above manual:
The 58.6 pound B54 was another application of the same device called the Special Atomic Demolition Munition (SADM), a nuclear land mine deployed in Europe, South Korea, Guam, and the United States from 1964-1989.
According to IISS, FAS and other sources, several of these munitions are *unaccounted for* and some have been known to appear on the black (or ‘grey’) markets. The biggest problem, however, is the old Soviet Union. When it was dismantles, it held a massive stockpile of many forms of tactical nuclear weapons, including an estimated 4,300 nucleat tactical missiles, 2,000 artillery rounds, 2,000 mortar rounds, 1,500 nuclear torpedo’s, 2,000 naval ordinance (including mines), 14,000 nuclear landmines, and several hundred man portable nuclear munitions designed for their special forces (Spetznaz) units. Many of the tactical weapons were dispersed in Soviet republics which underwent revolutions when the Soviet Union broke up. It should be noted that in January 2006, the US Council on Foreign Relations, in a background paper entitled: “Loose Nukes,” rejected the above estimates and stated that the Soviet Union had even more nuclear warheads. Its estimate was 27,000. Russia has admitted that many of these are *unaccounted for* since the Revolution.
My question is more along the lines of “Why hasn’t one been used yet?” Answering that was one of my jobs at DIO. But not one I will answer until my 30 gag is over in a few years, or so. So you’ll all have to wait for the book! 😉 😆
IISS Link and info here (including PDF’s):
Nuclear Black Markets: Pakistan, A.Q. Khan and the rise of proliferation networks
I understand Bryan. But sadly, many people already have stupid ideas, especially in the USA, about things that go *bang*. There are an estimated 300 million firearms sold legally, and nobody knows how many illegal arm’s there are! All information about making things that go *bang* is so easily available from several sources on the ‘net, it’s pathetic. And almost all have one thing in common, they are more likely to ruin the day of some idiot who tries to make them than anyone else. *shrug* Geez, are people so stupid that they think that any soldier would happily carry around explosives if they were going to go *bang* when they get bumped, or shot at etc? No! We had a demo of a block of plastic C4 (and it does look like modeling clay, or can be made to look like anything actually. Even a button.) 😉 We were taken out to the grenade practice range, the instructor placed a block of C4 on the ground about 20m from the *wall* (where the trainees would hide behind), and we were told to watch (we all had helmets and goggles on), and he fired a round into the C4. Several trainees ducked, but I knew about it from research & my Grandfather, and several others also apparently also knew. It didn’t go *bang*, it did nothing. There were grumbles for some of the trainees about *stupid pranks and the like*, so the instructor singles out one of the loudest complainers, gave him a remote detonator, and told him to go insert it into the C4 whilst the instructor took out his remote trigger and glared evilly at the trainee! 😈 (Instructors are such bastards!) 😆 😉
When the trainee got back, the instructor said “OK. Now you can all get down!” and we all did, then he flipped the safety and pressed the trigger, and there was an almighty *BOOM*. When the dust and dirt had settled, we looked up over the wall and saw a large crater! The instructor told us that so long as the special detonator wasn’t in the C4, we were safe, once inserted… not so much! Umm… yeah! Roger that! 😉
Ahh! Speaking of Monsieur LaPierre… I did a piece @ LM on 2002 that featured him on C-SPAN at a Judiciary hearing giving sworn testimony. 😉 It’s available on YouTube (what isn’t?) 😆 For those who don’t want to watch, here’s the important text:
In sworn testimony before the House Judiciary Crime Subcommittee on May 28, 1999, in the wake of the Columbine shootings, NRA Vice-President Wayne LaPierre speaks forcefully in favor of universal background checks.
“Let’s talk about what’s reasonable, and what’s not. We think it’s reasonable to provide mandatory, instant, criminal background checks for every sale, at every gun show. No loopholes, anywhere, for anyone.”
Wayne LaPierre Speaks in Favor of Universal Background Checks.
Ahhh, well… *shrug* Bed time. 😉
]]>LEOs ?! Hell, the LAPD would be gunning down Kalahari bushmen based on an accurate description of you. The people who could find you would want to call in an airstrike, rather than assaulting your position. The US law enforcement and military personnel are really messed up.
Personally I would vote for sending in Wayne LaPierre and the House Republican caucus to do the job. They are the people who believe in the magic of guns.
I assume that the guy in LA had another vehicle waiting for him when he torched his truck in the woods. He could be anywhere now, but he will be back.
Kryten, I play down the details of things that go bang, so I don’t give people any ideas. You can get military grade plastique easily in Florida, but if you don’t know what you are buying it will turn out to be modeling clay. If you filed a consumer complaint about the substitution, I wouldn’t guess what would happen as messed up as Florida is.
]]>But if you blow up an airliner bathroom — and yourself with it — it’ll still scare the **** out of a buncha people. Remember, terrorism isn’t necessarily about body count. The shoe bomber managed to make every every flyer in America spend minutes removing and replacing their shoes without killing a single person.
I call shenanigans on the baby nuke thing, btw. It may be easy enough to buy one, but transporting it is a different story. Everything with an atomic number high enough to work as a fission device is friggin’ heavy, especially if you’re trying to transport it without leavin’ a trail of folks who, like, glow in the dark. Which sorta would get some MiB types interested. Just sayin’ ;).
]]>Oh yeah, it is similar to the Philippines. 😆 Don’t worry, 1RAR was given plenty of incentive to capture us! The squad that captured one of us was given a 48hr pass and an ice cold keg of beer!
The first priority for an escapee is to find water. You can survive up to 2-3 weeks without food, only 3 days without water. Luckily, food and water are plentiful in the sub-tropics of far Nth Qld. I’d discovered I was being held captive somewhere near Cairns, and knew that everywhere between me and the base Sth. of me would be crawling with troops etc. I knew there ware farms west of me and plenty food. I needed to find clothes without anyone knowing I’d stolen them. I managed that the first day, and found some supplies (knife, couple bottles for water, and an old backpack and some other useful *bits*). Luckily for me, I’d been taken to Cairns and surrounds on a hunting trip when I was younger, and knew the area reasonably. 🙂 I remembered there was a small town somewhere S/W and figured it would be a good place to get things I needed. In the early 80’s in small town’s, security wasn’t a concern for most people. So it was easy to get into a service stsation at night to get some supplies for eg. Also a small general store. 😀 (they would be compensated by the Army after the exercise, and apparently I was so careful that neither knew anything was missing!) 😆 Which is the way it should be of course. When you are *on the run* it’s pretty stupid to leave an obvious trail of stolen goods, may as well leave a note with an Arrow saying *I’m heading this way!* 😆
As I began vectoring East, I picked up dogs barking and knew it was going to be a race. We had been trained how to avoid and disorientate tracker/attack dogs, so I used those skills. Anyway, A couple weeks after I got back and was recovering, I received my first commendation. That cheered me up somewhat. 😀 Happily, everyone in my unit passed
The peroxide you buy over the counter is too diluted to be any real use, usually to around 3%. You need a maximum of 30% diluted HP to make an explosive, and 60-70% for a really decent *bang*, and you can usually only get that at a chemical supply company who have to track all sales of that type. Acetone is more easily obtainable. Most model/craft shops have it in quantities. 🙂
Heck, you can buy a .50 cal AMR in some US States! And in the hands of a competent shooter, is a far more deadly weapon than a home made IED! WTF any civilian needs an AMR for is beyond me! I had one, and we used them to take out APC’s, light-medium tanks, fuel/ammo depot’s, radar installations, refineries, oil well’s, chopper’s, ships, and so on. They generally have a range of 2km or more. That’s crazy right there! You give me my old AMR and put me in a city, and I’ll show you some serious *Terrorist* activity! Don’t need any unstable IED’s, and they would be far less effective anyway! And I am very good at target selection to cause maximum panic & damage. It’s what my team was trained for. And no offense m8, but typical LEO’s & civilian security forces wouldn’t have a clue what to do about it either! Remember that my weapon had an effective radius of say 2.5 km, which makes for a large area of mayhem! 😉 But, I am too sane and stable. *shrug* Oh well… 😉 😆
You can buy anything on the black market if you have the contacts and money. Even high grade Military C5. Heck, you can even get a baby nuke if you really wanted to, and had some serious money. *shrug*
]]>Your course sounds a lot like the Jungle school in the Philippines where they pay an indigenous tribe a bounty for catching ‘escapees’. In the main course they don’t want you to attempt to escape unless you are selected by the official ‘escape committee’, which seems like a pretty stupid way to operate.
The whole, no liquids on the airplanes was totally without merit. If you attempt to make something like TATP anywhere but in a lab, you will almost certainly die in the attempt. The people who make up the rules don’t know what they are doing when they are guarding against someone making it in an airliner lavatory.
It is so much easier to buy C4 on the black market if you really want to blow something up than to make it yourself, that only a candidate for a Darwin would try it.
What a country the US is-
I can buy an AR-15 and a couple of thousand rounds of ammo with almost no formalities;
If I want to buy pseudoephedrine for a bad sinus problem I have to register with the state of Florida;
If I buy large bottles of nail polish remover and hydrogen peroxide at the same time, I can expect to be put on the No Fly list and probably visited by a Federal agent.
Tell me we aren’t insane …
]]>Yes, garden centers are a wonderful bonus! 😆
One of the great things about many of the *home made explosives* is that they are usually unstable and volatile. So many wannabe terrorists usually blow themselves up. 🙂 We were trained about how to stabilize the explosives, which is generally more complicated than making the things that go *bang*! 😉
My experience is that you cannot stop stupid people from doing stupid things. If you do, they just find another way to do something stupid. The best we can do is help them minimize the stupidity to themselves. 🙂
]]>Yeah, if there’s a garden center attached you can get really creative.
I’m not sure how many people would really understand what they are being told, and there are definitely people around here I wouldn’t tell anything for fear they would do something really stupid with the information.
I guess I have a hard time getting worried about ‘terrorists’ when I live around people who can cause widespread alarm and mayhem with their idea of a ‘harmless prank’. These are people who think that Easter Sunday would benefit from a fireworks display.
]]>Anyway, one of the other red hat courses I had to do, was how to make colored smoke bombs or flares (white, green, orange, blue, red), and various explosives from normal household chemicals and items. People would be amazed at how easy it is to do! Potassium chlorate (KClO3) is easy and only needs two common ingredients. Part of our normal kit when on a mission in enemy territory were a few items not easy to find, such as zinc powder and ammonium nitrate crystals. With some common chemicals, it will produce a flame that can melt through steel locks or hinges etc, or as a powerful primer for plastic explosives. Even learned how to make napalm. *shrug*
Kitchens and laundries are really dangerous places! 😉 😀 (Especially for people like me!) 😆
Maybe everyone should do a SERE type course at school Bryan! 😆 They may have a healthier respect for the dangers of a normal household! 😈
(Especially since it seems that *common sense* is becoming more rare every day.) *shrug*
]]>Oh, yeah, most people just pile it under sink or in a closet without knowing the consequences of some of those things mixing. The stuff they used to power early rockets and missiles would dissolve people. That’s the reason there was always a huge shower arrangement in the fueling area, and everyone wore rubber suits and air packs. You can make the equivalent in the detergent aisle of a supermarket. The warnings are on the labels, but the print is so small, people ignore it.
I’m happy if I helped, Juanita.
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