High-Tech Handheld Weapons

Years ago, my boss at a former job told me that her boyfriend was an engineer who contracted with the federal government to decontaminate decommissioned Russian military equipment. It may have been part of SALT, or something like it. Anyway, she said in passing that the gear had to do with nuclear weapons, and that most of it was handheld.

Handheld? Nukes??

That chilled me to my bones.

Now, I see this - handheld EMP weapons. Seriously?? Yes, I'm chilled again, and this sort of thing strikes me as end-of-the-world stuff.

tass.com...

Comments?

a reply to: Lazarus Short

The smallest nukes that I know of constructed by the Soviets were the brief case bomb's which were intended to be taken to target locations as part of their diplomatic luggage, these were small yield tactical nukes.

Other than that Nuclear Land Mines (ADM's).

However, several nuclear nations had their military's working on hand-held nukes, so it is more than feasible albeit as you say a disquieting concept.

Usually, the size of the fissionable core of the nuke and the shielding and other parts would limit the size and make them even those brief case bomb's only hand-held to a certain degree, you certainly would not want to hump one around over a great distance but if you can pop it into the trunk of a car and drive it to a target location then it remains practical.

As for EMP's, well those tactical brief-case bombs could also be used as EMP devices.

What I found scariest though was the cold war concept of the neutron Bomb, I would not be at all surprised if there were not a few sitting in stockpiles around the world as well.

Pretty scary stuff but you need some of the boffins on the site to chirp in on this one.

originally posted by: LABTECH767
What I found scariest though was the cold war concept of the neutron Bomb, I would not be at all surprised if there were not a few sitting in stockpiles around the world as well.

True, we only know of the neutron bomb missile silo beneath the Eiffel Tower.

a reply to: merka

Never heard of that one, they were supposedly only theoretical and never developed but in reality, the US almost definitely did and probably in all likelihood the Soviets followed suit.

The French are a nuclear power as are we Brit's and so of course is China, Pakistan and a few others that have lately with the help of former Soviet scientists for sale become nuclear as well.

Irael is with perhaps up to two to four hundred nukes, but no one knows for sure how many they have, and it could be significantly less than that, Saudi Arabia definitely is also nuclear capable especially after a certain dirty deal between Thatcher's government and the Saudi's when they gave them the South African nukes.

But I would be very surprised if the French put nukes near to a major cultural icon, they surrendered in WW2 just so that Paris would not be destroyed by the German's and regard their art and architecture as part of their nation's soul and so while they will fight to protect such, they would definitely not put it at risk by making it a target in that manner.


As you can see by this video, they never managed to turn them completely useful and never reached the ideal of a pure neutronic emission device.

Likely though they would have developed another method of emitting neutron radiation without the blast and that is a scary thought.

originally posted by: LABTECH767
a reply to: merka
Never heard of that one, they were supposedly only theoretical and never developed but in reality, the US almost definitely did and probably in all likelihood the Soviets followed suit.

Aw come on... you havent heard of that time Springfield was nuked by le bombe neutron? The US learned it the hard way not to insult the fro... I mean French.

a reply to: Lazarus Short
The US "Davy Crokett"was pretty much handheld,only weighing around 35kg a big dude could probably shoulder launch it.
I think its what the nuke launcher from the Fallout game is based on.

en.wikipedia.org...(nuclear_device)

Made in the late 50's early 60's-so I bet we could make something a lot smaller with todays tech

a reply to: Lazarus Short

Harpoon-3 isn't an EMP weapon. It jams the communications and navigation system of small drones using EW systems.

originally posted by: merka

originally posted by: LABTECH767
a reply to: merka
Never heard of that one, they were supposedly only theoretical and never developed but in reality, the US almost definitely did and probably in all likelihood the Soviets followed suit.

Aw come on... you havent heard of that time Springfield was nuked by le bombe neutron? The US learned it the hard way not to insult the fro... I mean French.

Well, you certainly Got me, my fault for not watching the Simpsons, still Bart did remind me of my nephew.
And there was me giving a serious answer making a noodle of myself.

My understanding is the smallest nuclear weapon had the yield of .4 KT.
any smaller and the pit did not have enough material to sustain a chain reaction and is just a dirty bomb.

The tsara Bomba was the biggest nuke ever detonated at 50 kilotons. I broke windows up to 430 miles away and registered a 5 on the rector scale ..3rd degree burns up to 60 plus miles and leveled everything within 30 something ..blast waves felt as far as 530 miles..and that was only half its potential yeild.......

That's the one I'd be worried about

You can't tell me the soviets just dismantled that thing and don't have any left or even improved on it

Dbl

SPAM

a reply to: ManBehindTheMask

They don't have anything that can carry it that would reach any target. It was carried in a modified Tu-95 that suffered damage from the blast. A Tu-95 isn't going to reach any target in the US intact.

a reply to: Lazarus Short

NUCLEAR ARTILLERY SHELLS
project : Upshot–Knothole Grable
from wikipedia

Upshot–Knothole Grable was a nuclear weapons test conducted by the United States as part of Operation Upshot–Knothole. Detonation of the associated nuclear weapon occurred 19 seconds after its deployment at 8:30am PDT (1530 UTC) on May 25, 1953, in Area 5 of the Nevada Test Site 15 kilotons

fired from the M65 Atomic Cannon

originally posted by: Silcone Synapse I bet we could make something a lot smaller with todays tech

It's called the ex-wife.

a reply to: Silcone Synapse

The problem is that to get critical mass, you need a certain amount on fissile material. That's not going to change much. You might get a smaller shell, but smaller core means smaller yield, until you get into the range where you can no longer get a nuclear reaction.

a reply to: LABTECH767

. . . they were supposedly only theoretical and never developed but in reality, the US almost definitely did . . .

. . . I knew that something catastrophic had happened in Saddam International Airport, but I had no idea that it was something nuclear. Over the next couple of years I received many reports from both Arab and Western witnesses who said that we had used a neutron warhead. It wasn’t until I joined the antiwar Camp Casey in 2005, though, that I spoke with numerous witnesses together. They included Army and Marine veterans of the Battle of Baghdad, Arab witnesses and journalists. All their accounts, taken together, convinced me that we had used a neutron bomb.

www.veteranstodayarchives.com...

Captain Eric H. May's nephew is an ATS member.

'May you have an interesting uncle'.

originally posted by: LABTECH767
a reply to: Lazarus Short
boffins

The brits sure know how how to put them in their place, don't they?

originally posted by: Lazarus Short
... boss ... her boyfriend ...

So ... guns are banned and it sounds like you aren't allowed to pack an ordinary revolver or automatic pistol.

originally posted by: justinacolmena

originally posted by: LABTECH767
a reply to: Lazarus Short
boffins

The brits sure know how how to put them in their place, don't they?

Sorry slightly off topic (I can't resist) but to explain Boffins is British slang for scientists or rather top scientists, we used to call them Tefal heads after a well-known electronics brand in the UK that used to have an ad campaign with actors dressed as mad scientists with oversized heads so my generation most often just called them tefal heads for about a decade or so though it is now back to Boffins not to be confused with the many Bothans of star wars many of whom died retrieving the death star plans before Darth Mickey mucked it all up and used an even more deadly weapon called Kathleen to destroy the star wars Galaxy.