During the Cold War, US SCO fighters jumped with nuclear bombs between legs (photo)

But in the 1960s, US soldiers jumped with a special Sadm atomic ammunition. This projectile is also known as "Nuclear Weapons in a Backpack". The bomb was placed in a special solid case for transportation either on the back or between the legs. Its weight was 68 kg (150 pounds). At the heart of the ammunition was the W-54 or B-54 warhead. Physically, their size was surprisingly small, 24 inches in length and 16 in width or 60. 9 cm and 40. 6 cm, respectively.

The publication states that in order to reveal the question of what it was done, you need to look at the history in the 1940s and 1960s. Then the US began diversification of nuclear weapons. The destruction after the impact in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 were too large. Then in 1949 the USSR created its nuclear warhead. Therefore, then it was thought that in the future wars, smaller nuclear charge bombs would be decisive. They will be delivered by special operations.

Therefore, in the laboratory of nuclear weapons Los Alamos and Sandy began to work to reduce the size of warheads. Even guns or small ballistic missiles with a nuclear charge were developed by 10-20 tons of TNT. So Sadm was created for use on or under the surface of the earth to block and interfere with enemies. The initial purpose of the ammunition was to change the landscape to complicate the enemy's actions.

The ammunition was first received in the US Nuclear Arsenal in 1954, with one of the first ADM trials during the Nesady (1955) surgery. At the same time, they began to create a SADM family with different nuclear charge. A total of about 300 such ammunition was released. There were two people in the parachute team. One carries disassembled weapons in a bag and the other has accompanied it, because in the US doctrine, one person should never have means for independent use of nuclear weapons.

In the 1960s and 1970s, parachute missions were fulfilled both above the sea and over the land to prepare for their potential blast abroad. In 1972, the units were laid with Parachuts near the National Forest of the White Mountain in New Hampshire. After the bomb was laid, the soldiers had to find a shelter so as not to get under the explosion and it was a difficult task, because the timers were not always relied on. However, fighters and commands have repeatedly criticized the program.

"There were real problems with the operational wisdom of the program, and those who had to fulfill the mission were convinced that the one who came up with it used bad marijuana," said the Green Light Special Construction Commander Bill Flavin. And as noted in the publication, Sadm was never used in a foreign territory. We will remind, on June 7, the US Air Force received a modernized "E-6b Mercury" Judgment Aircraft, which is part of a nuclear triad.