M65 Recoiless Nuclear Rifle., page 1

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Topic started on 11-5-2009 @ 11:17 AM by whatukno

That's right folks, step right up, be the first on your block to have the amazing M65 Recoiless Nuclear Rifle. Nicknamed the "Davey Crockett" this rifle was one of the most useless firearms in human history. Able to launch a .01 kiloton nuclear warhead the distance of three miles well within the nuke's own blast radius.

YouTube Link

And people wonder why military intelligence is an oxymoron.

reply posted on 11-5-2009 @ 11:19 AM by earthman4

I knew the US had suicide bombers. Anyone with this bomb would die using it.

reply posted on 11-5-2009 @ 11:20 AM by Ihniwid

Fallout 3 made a in game version of this gun called the MIRV. Pretty badass lol. But yes, very, very silly.

reply posted on 11-5-2009 @ 11:23 AM by Estharik

I saw that segment before... always made me wonder about what they were thinking making that. I wonder if today they could increase the range on it? Maybe some things are not worth thinking about....

Heck I bet some of those suicide terrorists could one-up this and just strap the nuke to their chest!

reply posted on 11-5-2009 @ 11:24 AM by Estharik

reply to post by Ihniwid

There's the Fat Man that launches one nuke at a time... the experimental MIRV you're talking about launched 8 nukes at once

It's a good thing when you use it in game they have those nice RadAways in stock!

reply posted on 11-5-2009 @ 11:27 AM by FredT

This was but one of many less than well thought out atomic weapons. There also were artillery shells aka Atomic Annie etc. Its amazine we survived the era

reply posted on 11-5-2009 @ 11:30 AM by Now_Then

You gotta love the Yanks

I heard of this a few years back just a few days before April 1st... So I saved some images and emaild them to some friends - they all thought it was an april fools

I also told them about the chicken powered nuke

The davey croket is great - man how easy would that thing be to fall into the wrong hands? Or mis fire?

reply posted on 11-5-2009 @ 11:32 AM by Ihniwid

Originally posted by Estharik
reply to post by Ihniwid

There's the Fat Man that launches one nuke at a time... the experimental MIRV you're talking about launched 8 nukes at once

It's a good thing when you use it in game they have those nice RadAways in stock!

Yeah the fat man. Mirv was more fun, lol. Level a city pretty darn quick.

reply posted on 11-5-2009 @ 11:32 AM by mdiinican

3 miles isn't well within the blast radius. It's within the area that would be affected by the fallout, but it's not like the crew would be blown away in the explosion.

chances are, the crew would dig foxholes, into which they would wait out the initial radiation burst and the edge of the shockwave.

reply posted on 11-5-2009 @ 11:38 AM by Anjin

C'mon, those were the good ol' days before Nuc's were really dangerous. We used to line up our troops in trenches and gave them plenty of protection like eye Goggles to wear.

but really, what were they thinking? That idea is almost as good as a screen door on a Submarine

reply posted on 11-5-2009 @ 11:41 AM by whatukno

reply to post by mdiinican

Your right, sorry for my mistake, they only had to fear the fallout radiation not the initial blast. Hopefully they were firing downwind

reply posted on 11-5-2009 @ 11:47 AM by Maxmars

Originally posted by whatukno
That's right folks, step right up, be the first on your block to have the amazing M65 Recoiless Nuclear Rifle. Nicknamed the "Davey Crockett" this rifle was one of the most useless firearms in human history. Able to launch a .01 kiloton nuclear warhead the distance of three miles well within the nuke's own blast radius.

And people wonder why military intelligence is an oxymoron.

Rarely, if ever, do I rise to defend these 'nuclear scientist' in the military, but I can assure you, it wasn't them that came up with this brain fart. It was the weapons manufacturers who made money selling such things, despite their uselessness.

It was military intelligence that turned around after they were already 'acquired' and said, "Hell no!... YOU use them."

reply posted on 11-5-2009 @ 03:10 PM by StellarX

Hi,

Can anyone explain to me why they think that this weapon is 'useless'? Would you rather take your chances with fallout ( defeated by having a well dug shelter with top cover) or be run over by the tank battalion that is busy shooting up your position? Sure i can agree that i wouldn't hand these things out to every tenth guy but this sort of thing give new meaning to 'direct fire support'. Why bother with CAS or artillery support when every battalion level command has a few of these!

Either way it would kinda ruin the war for both sides if nuclear rifle wielding commando 'scouts' could scout in this kind of force.

Stellar

Edit: for spelling

[edit on 11-5-2009 by StellarX]

reply posted on 11-5-2009 @ 05:04 PM by Basiji2012

One of these days they are going to create what they will think is a WMD, not even knowing how destructive the chemical components are, and soon they find out its a WPD (Weapon of Planetary Destruction), by doing a test like that. Cracking our planet into 5 pieces.

No wonder we spot UFO's landing at nuclear missile sites and disarming them. Which makes me wonder, without a doubt, how many civilizations have become extinct due to their own weapons.

reply posted on 11-5-2009 @ 05:14 PM by SpartanKingLeonidas

reply to post by whatukno

Can you just imagine the Private reporting successful firing of this?

Well, we got'em Sarge. Hey, Sarge, why is your nose red like Rudolph?

Maybe Obama will bring this weapon back? I nominate Wukky for test-firing it.

[edit on 11-5-2009 by SpartanKingLeonidas]

reply posted on 11-5-2009 @ 05:19 PM by Now_Then

Just had a thought... What if the bomb is somehow a dud? You enemy would really appreciate the delivery of weapons grade material... And a nice bomb that they can backwardly engineer.

reply posted on 11-5-2009 @ 08:01 PM by Brother Stormhammer

Originally posted by Now_Then
Just had a thought... What if the bomb is somehow a dud? You enemy would really appreciate the delivery of weapons grade material... And a nice bomb that they can backwardly engineer.

One word answer: "RELOAD!".

And, just to avoid the dreaded one-line post, it's worth pointing out that the potential 'target audience' (and doesn't THAT take on a new meaning in this context?) for the Crockett wouldn't have to 'reverse engineer' a nuclear warhead...the Warsaw Pact forces were well-stocked with tactical and theater nuclear weapons already.

reply posted on 11-5-2009 @ 11:36 PM by punkinworks

i just loved the davey crocket it harkens back to a simpler time.

Actually,
the blast radius of that weapon was only like 300', thats still pretty big, it would knock down buildings to about 1000' out.
Sure the crew would be irradiated if they stuck around.
But if we we to the point of having to use it, it wouldnt matter anyway.

Its actually a pretty good deterent, no tellin which jeep or truck has the big boomer on board.
And by the way there were whole host of tactical nuclear munitions from mines to artillery(155 mm) and small rockets from .01kt to .5 kt

reply posted on 12-5-2009 @ 12:02 AM by punkinworks

Originally posted by Now_Then
You gotta love the Yanks

I heard of this a few years back just a few days before April 1st... So I saved some images and emaild them to some friends - they all thought it was an april fools

I also told them about the chicken powered nuke

The davey croket is great - man how easy would that thing be to fall into the wrong hands? Or mis fire?

OMG youve got to be kidding, CHICKENS is best the boffins could come up with?

What about the cr&p and the feathers fouling

the delicate works.
What was a battery beyond them?

That is one of the funniest things ive ever seen.

I used to have a book that detailed the history of the use of animals in warfare.
Some of the more unique things were bats with timed incidiary devices attached to them dropped, by the thousands over several japanese cities, by B-29's.
It was very effective, the bats would emediately find shelter under the eves of buildings and the timed incindiary devices would go off latter, starting a fire storm.
Or the use of dogs by the germans as mobile anti tank mines.
The dog was trained to be fed under a tank. then they would strap an explosive pack on its back and let it go, hungry. The pack had an antennea that stuck up about a foot that was the trigger.
When the dog saw a tank they would run underneath it expect to get fed and the wire would trip the explosive.
It was not succesful at all.
Several navies use dolphins as anti-diver "watch dogs".
The dolphins are intelligent enough to distinguish friend from foe, and Operate almost autonomously, they are trained to imobalize and or kill enemy divers.
But chickens to keep a nuke warm takes they cake.

reply posted on 12-5-2009 @ 12:36 AM by whatukno

reply to post by Maxmars

I think you are confusing Nuclear Scientists with weapons engineers. The ones that created the concept of a nuclear RPG shell (which that is really what it is, the grand daddy of all RPGs) were geniuses. How ever, the bonehead move came on the part of the delivery system.

This thing is just slightly more useful than a thermonuclear hand grenade. The range is too short to be safe for use.

You could not use this weapon effectively against an enemy. If you were to use this on an area, a large portion of the position that you gain would be irradiated and could adversely affect your own troops years or even decades latter.

reply to post by punkinworks

the blast radius of that weapon was only like 300', thats still pretty big, it would knock down buildings to about 1000' out.
Sure the crew would be irradiated if they stuck around.

Let's look at the consiquences of letting one of these things off.

Graphic History Please be Advised

And

Most of the radiation hazard from nuclear bursts comes from short-lived radionuclides external to the body; these are generally confined to the locality downwind of the weapon burst point. This radiation hazard comes from radioactive fission fragments with half-lives of seconds to a few months, and from soil and other materials in the vicinity of the burst made radioactive by the intense neutron flux.

Source: www.atomicarchive.com...

So I would surmise that as a deterrent, this is a brilliant strategy. A high powered explosive RPG painted up like one of these with the right information leaked to the enemy would inspire more fear than a real weapon of this kind.

A friendly fire incident with one of these could be devastating. An accident, a misfire, any number of things, the enemy could steal this weapon. Maybe not to back engineer but to perhaps fire it on your position.

Don't forget the military motto

"If it is worth doing it's worth overdoing" (or is that Mythbusters? I forget)

Do you think they would really stop at one if they actually put this into use? (See fat man and little boy)

Not only do you irradiate a position, it's not going to kill everyone. Some will be severely injured, dying, irradiated, burned, shocked, in pain, and the unfortunate ones long after the war is over would suffer the effects of radiation via cancers directly resulting from the exposure.

Just a thought.

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