ICBM awesomeness

[Frank]

My Dad was stationed on the silos when he was in the Army in the 50's. I didn't realize just how badass the Nike program was.

[svauto-erotic855]

You don't know what fast is until you see a Sprint missile in action. At full speed the outside skin of the missile is hotter then the exhaust gas.


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msXtgTVMcuA&feature=related[/ame]

[4.6coupe]

411x0c? I was a 411x0b SRAM/ALCM at KI Sawyer AFB back in the day, back in Reagan's Air Force.

Nuke 'em till they glow!!!!

I was a 2M0X1A... An electro-mechanical tech. What we did was service the LF's;launch facilities and the LCC's; launch control centers. I had the best work schedule... We went out 3 times a week... They could be 8-24 hrs though... What sucked was working In some of the coldest weather I have ever encountered in my life in the middle of farmer joes backyard in the middle of nowhere. Good times. I promise you it felt like the wind could cut you in half... It was cold. Damn cold.

[RWhite]

Wonder what G force/stress this missile puts on the components inside? They must be tremendously high!

[quikag]

This is way declassified now, but my Dad was one of many trained to deliver a nuclear weapon from his jet in the Marine Corps. He said the odds of getting away from the blast radius after dropping the payload wasn't very good, but at that point, it probably wouldn't be a big concern because the whole world would be in deep crap anyway.

Just kind of surreal when my Dad told me about it a few years ago (he left the Marine Corps in '88). Imagine just going through that training where they are instructing you how to deliver/drop that nuclear weapon and then how to try to get outside of the blast radius and not die. Pretty crazy stuff.

[46Tbird]

I'm not aware that any Marine aircraft has ever had a nuclear mission. Please elaborate.

[quikag]

I'm not aware that any Marine aircraft has ever had a nuclear mission. Please elaborate.

My Dad never went on a nuclear mission. He was trained to deliver nuclear ordinance in an end-of-the-world scenario. They would have strapped a nuke onto the underside of his A-4 Skyhawk and he would have flown off into the sunset to some enemy country to kill probably hundreds of thousands of people and likely himself in that final mission.

[tribaltalon]

the Israelis had a plan involving A-4's and what basically amounted to a lob launch, where they'd fly at high speed, and then pull up and release the nuke and lob it however far and they'd keep pulling back until they did a 180 and try and get the hell out before the nuke blew.

[Strychnine]

They would have strapped a nuke onto the underside of his A-4 Skyhawk and he would have flown off into the sunset.

the Israelis had a plan involving A-4's and what basically amounted to a lob launch, where they'd fly at high speed, and then pull up and release the nuke and lob it however far and they'd keep pulling back until they did a 180 and try and get the hell out before the nuke blew.

Got curious. Googled.



During my first year in VX-5, which would be from April 1958 to April 1959, I flew hundreds of loft bombing profiles in the A-4 and the FJ-4B, along with hundreds of dive bombing runs in both aircraft. In addition I flew a large number of cruise control flights in both the A-4 and FJ, with many of those with aerial refueling. Cruise control flights had your aircraft configured with a shape (for a nuclear weapon), plus external fuel tanks. You had to fly precise airspeeds and altitudes in the mission profiles, cruise climb as you burned fuel, and factor in the high winds aloft. The loft and dive bombing runs were to develop tactics for nuclear weapon delivery, and the cruise control flights were to develop flight profiles that would provide the greatest mission radius. This was all for nuclear weapons delivery, and the results of VX-5’s work would be the Special Weapons Delivery Handbooks for each delivery aircraft

- Gen William Fitch, USMC-Ret


Longer read here: http://a4skyhawk.org/2c/a4parts/mcbr.html

The aircraft's five hardpoints support a variety of missiles, bombs and other munitions and was capable of delivering nuclear weapons using a low altitude bombing system and a "loft" delivery technique.


Bombs:

6× Rockeye-II Mark 20 Cluster Bomb Unit (CBU)
6× Rockeye Mark 7/APAM-59 CBU
Mark 80 series of unguided bombs (including 3 kg and 14 kg practice bombs)
B57 nuclear bomb
B61 nuclear bomb


Thermal cockpit shield for nuclear weapons delivery.

http://steeljawscribe.com/2006/12/08/flightdeck-friday-nuclear-fleas

That's badass.

[46Tbird]

My Dad never went on a nuclear mission. He was trained to deliver nuclear ordinance in an end-of-the-world scenario. They would have strapped a nuke onto the underside of his A-4 Skyhawk and he would have flown off into the sunset to some enemy country to kill probably hundreds of thousands of people and likely himself in that final mission.

Ah, gotcha. A Doomsday mission.

One of my favorite planes is the B-36. But it was kind of a weird duck, being able to deliver 25+MT thermonuclear weapons but only capable of 400mph. I sure as shit wouldn't want to be in one after dropping one of those monsters!

[svauto-erotic855]

Wonder what G force/stress this missile puts on the components inside? They must be tremendously high!

At its peak acceleration it is hitting 100g with an over all curve of about 80g.

[01vnms4v]

I had an uncle that flew the B-52 Bombers back in the day, when they had nukes on them.