Lost H Bomb

[Armistead]

Just watching this on the Military Channel. I've heard we lost several in the past, but thought the one lost near Savannah was a dummy or lacked all the components, but seems no one knows for sure. I suspect the truth is known, just we don't know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_Tybee_Island_mid-air_collision

[Platapus]

In that incident we only lost one Mk-15 and we have a pretty good idea where it is... but

On 10 Mar 56, one B-47 was carrying two Mk 15 nuclear weapons over the Mediterranean Sea. It got lost inside a large cloud bank and disappeared. No wreckage from the bomber was ever found and of course, the two Mk 15's are still missing.

If that don't make you think... :yep:

[Wolferz]

There are probably numerous broken arrows laying around. Not exactly the kind of news they'll wish to share.

[Nippelspanner]

Nuclear weapons and power ftw! :yeah:

[Armistead]

There are probably numerous broken arrows laying around. Not exactly the kind of news they'll wish to share.

I think the total number for US was 11, including nuke tipped torps. Guess they think they're safer in the ocean.

[Stealhead]

Yes much pretty much impossible to find it would be easier to make your own bomb than try and find one like that if you where so inclined like a terrorist.

There where 32 "Broken Arrow" incidents you also have "Bent Spear" which I have a feeling the total number are classified.Broken Arrows you can not deny because you sort cant miss a huge bomber crashing.A "Bent Spear" is not as noticeable and generally never becomes public information because they occur deep within highly controlled areas.Excluding the B-52H that flew from Minot to Barksdale with nuclear armed cruise missiles and not even the crew realized that they where carrying that type.


A B-52 disintegrated in flight over North Carolina in 1961 it had two nuclear bombs in it bomb bay fully armed.They where designed so that chute opened during flight so as to allow the dropping aircraft have time to get away from the blast radius.

Anyway on one of them the chute failed and it hit the ground and split apart.The second bombs chute deployed just fine and it was found intact in that bomb five of six arming devices successfully tripped nice thought.This was a fail safe in the case that Soviet air defenses destroy the dropping aircraft before a proper bomb release the bomb if it got out of the bomb bay (highly likely) it would still kill some Ruskie trees at least.That should have made them weary to fly with a fully armed bomb but it did not.

I know that another B-52 crashed up around Greenland and they never found any of the bombs it held but they are at the bottom of several thousand feet of water.

The worst was the accident over Spain that took out a B-52 and a KC-135 along with most of the crews of each.Some sort of catastrophic accident occurred during the refueling process.

A few B-52s also collided in mid-air in the first several months of Arc Light missions over South Vietnam and Laos they of course only had 500 and 750 pound bombs in the bomb bays.

I am surprised that there where not more Broken Arrows with the B-47 it being an unforgiving aircraft if you made a mistake or something busted in flight the B-52 is a bit more docile.The B-47 had a fairly high accident rate so the USAF may have been reluctant to fly them on alert once the B-52 came into service in 1954/55.

One B-36 crashed up in Canada that had a nuke aboard in 1950 That nuke has never been found the pilot managed to fly the plane for sometime after ordering the rest of the crew (17 people in magnesium overcast ) to bail out he died in the crash and the nuke was not in the bomb bay so either he dropped it or more likely the systems failed and the bomb dropped on it own somewhere between the Pacific Ocean where the crew bailed(12 got rescued not bad seeing as this was during a severe storm) and the mountain the plane flew into.

Broken Arrow has another meaning in the US military when a unit is in contact with enemy forces and is being over run they tell the FAC "Broken Arrow" which allows all support to light the place up because on the ground the battle has been lost and decimation by the enemy is transpiring.

[Wolferz]

Just think of the consequences if they had issued a bunch of Davy Crocketts to infantry units.:huh::o:huh::o:huh::o:doh:

Fire that weapon Private!

No sir!

Why not, Private?

Sir, the weapon has insufficient range and we'll be caught in the blast radius!

Don't you want to die for your country son?
Hell no, sir! That's for the other guys to do.

[Stealhead]

For a time in the USAF and USN the idea of using tactical aircraft,fighters,fighter-bombers,strike aircraft as a tactical nuclear weapons platforms was very trendy by the late 50's there where already bombs small enough for the tiny A-4 Skyhawk to deploy.Most of our combat aircraft are still able to carry and deploy the same basic bomb that was developed.It had originally been developed as a way for the B-47 to attack at low level.

They also developed a flight maneuver in which the aircraft approached the target and began a 45 degree climb at a certain point in this climb the pilot released the bomb it is then "flung" towards the target once the bomb was free the pilot rolled and flew away there was a device called a LABS timer in the cockpit the told the pilot the point at which to release the bomb.This maneuver was known as the "Idiot loop" or "Idiots loop" not officially of course officially it was the LABS maneuver.

During the siege of Khe Shan in 1968 it was on the table for brief time to send an F-100 on such a mission.I suspect this was because Thailand where the F-105s where stationed and some B-52s disallowed the presence of nuclear weapons while South Vietnam did not.

I read in an article once about this tactical mission and an F-101 pilot explained that he thought about it one day and decided "that his mother loved him more the Air force did" and he asked to removed form flying duties.


F-100 pilot talking about the LABS(he seems a bit optimistic about it but then again some people are crazy)
http://www.lesfrazier.com/labs.htm
Yee-Haw baby!!!
http://elpoderdelasgalaxias.wordpress.com/2013/02/20/republic-f-84f-super-hog-the-idiots-loop-2/
B-47 doing the LABS it says that it stressed the frames of B-47s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqIJL8lx00o