Strap-On Atomic Bombs? What Could Go Wrong?

Adam Rawnsley and David Brown share the the incredible story of the B-54 Special Atomic Demolition Munition (SADM), otherwise known as the “backpack nuke”:

Soldiers from elite Army engineer and Special Forces units, as well as Navy SEALs and select Marines, trained to use the bombs, known as “backpack nukes,” on battlefronts from Eastern Europe to Korea to Iran – part of the U.S. military’s effort to ensure the containment and, if necessary, defeat of communist forces [during the latter half of the Cold War]. … Cold War strategy was filled with oxymorons like “limited nuclear war,” but the backpack nuke was perhaps the most darkly comic manifestation of an age struggling to deal with the all-too-real prospect of Armageddon. The SADM was a case of life imitating satire. After all, much like Slim Pickens in the iconic finale of Dr. Strangelove, American soldiers would strap on atomic bombs and jump out of airplanes as part of the opening act of World War III.

The convenient thing about backpack nuke was that you could take them, well, almost anywhere:

Navy SEALs and Army Special Forces were trained to reach their targets by air, land, and sea. They could parachute behind enemy lines from cargo planes or helicopters. Teams specializing in scuba missions could swim the bomb to its destination if necessary. (The AEC built an airtight, pressurized case that allowed divers to submerge the bomb to depths of up to 200 feet.) One Special Forces team even trained to ski with the weapon in the Bavarian Alps, though not without some difficulty. “It skied down the mountain; you did not,” said Bill Flavin, who commanded a Special Forces SADM team. “If it shifted just a little bit, that was it. You were out of control on the slopes with that thing.”

Previous Dish on nuking the Cold War fridge here, here, and here.