Davy Crockett Makes History with a Little Feller at the NTS; Nevada Test Site History DOE/NV - 1200 Rev 1
Las Vegas, NV: National Nuclear Security Administration, Nevada Field Office, Office of Public Affairs, 2013. Presumed First Edition, First printing thus. Single sheet, printed on both sides. Format is approximately 8.5 inches by 11 inches. Black and White illustrations and text on both sides. The Nevada Test Site was the primary testing location of American nuclear devices from 1951 to 1992; 928 announced nuclear tests occurred there. Of those, 828 were underground. (Sixty-two of the underground tests included multiple, simultaneous nuclear detonations, adding 93 detonations and bringing the total number of NTS nuclear detonations to 1,021, of which 921 were underground.) The site is covered with subsidence craters from the testing. The NTS was the United States' primary location for tests smaller than 1 Mt (4.2 PJ). 126 tests were conducted elsewhere, including most larger tests. Many of these occurred at the Pacific Proving Grounds in the Marshall Islands. The last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada Test Site was "Little Feller I" of Operation Sunbeam, on July 17, 1962. The M-28 or M-29 Davy Crockett Weapon System was the tactical nuclear recoilless gun (smoothbore) for firing the M-388 nuclear projectile that was deployed by the United States during the Cold War. It was one of the smallest nuclear weapon systems ever built, with a yield between 10 and 20 tons TNT equivalent (40–80 gigajoules). It is named after American folk hero, soldier, and congressman Davy Crockett. The Davy Crockett recoilless spigot gun was developed in the late 1950s for use against Soviet and North Korean armor and troops in case war broke out in Europe or the Korean peninsula. Davy Crockett Sections were assigned to United States Army Europe and Eighth United States Army armor and mechanized and non-mechanized infantry battalions. During alerts to the Inner German border in the Fulda Gap the Davy Crocketts accompanied their battalions. All V Corps (including 3rd Armored Division) combat maneuver battalions had preassigned positions in the Fulda Gap. These were known as GDP (General Defense Plan) positions. The Davy Crockett sections were included in these defensive deployment plans. In addition to the Davy Crocketts (e.g., assigned to the 3rd Armored Division), V Corps had nuclear artillery rounds and Atomic Demolition Mines, and these were also targeted on the Fulda Gap. On the Korean peninsula, units assigned the Davy Crockett weapons primarily planned to use the passes that funneled armor as killing grounds, creating temporarily deadly radioactive zones roadblocked by destroyed tanks and other vehicles. The M-388 round used a version of the Mk-54 warhead, a very small sub-kiloton fission device. The Mk-54 weighed about 51 pounds (23 kg), with a yield equivalent to somewhere between 10 and 20 tons of TNT—close to the minimum practical size for a fission warhead, and comparable in yield to the largest conventional bombs developed at the time. The only selectable feature with either version of the Davy Crockett (M28 & M29) was the height-of-burst switch on the warhead. The complete round weighed 76 pounds (34 kg). It was 31 inches (79 cm) long with a diameter of 11 inches (28 cm) at its widest point; a subcaliber piston at the back of the shell was inserted into the launcher's barrel for firing. The M-388 atomic projectile was mounted on the barrel-inserted spigot via bayonet slots. Once the propellant was discharged the spigot became the launching piston for the M-388 atomic projectile: this was necessary because the fission round could not be subject to high acceleration and the spigot/piston, acting as a "pusher tube", facilitated this. The nuclear yield is hinted at in FM 9-11: Operation and Employment of the Davy Crockett Battlefield Missile, XM-28/29 (June 1963). Versions of the W54 warhead were also used in the Special Atomic Demolition Munition project and the AIM-26A Falcon. The M-388 could be launched from either of two launchers known as the Davy Crockett Weapon System(s): the 4.7-inch (120 mm) M28, with a range of about 1.25 miles (2.01 km), or the 6.1-inch (150 mm) M29, with a range of 2.5 miles (4.0 km). Both weapons used the same projectile, and were either mounted on a tripod launcher transported by an M113 armored personnel carriers, or they were carried by a Jeep (the M-38, and later the M-151). Production of the Davy Crockett began following the 15 August 1958 (at) Picatinny Arsenal approval of the design, with a total of 2,100 being made. The weapon was tested between 1962 and 1968 at the Pohakuloa Training Area on Hawai i island, with 714 M101 spotter rounds (not live warheads) that contained depleted uranium. The weapon was deployed with US Army forces from 1961 to 1971. It was removed from US Army Europe (in West Germany) in August 1967. Condition: Very good.
Keywords: Nevada Test Site, Nuclear Weapons Test, Davy Crockett, Little Feller, Robert Kennedy, Troop Maneuver, Military Training, Atmospheric Testing, Operation Dominic II, Weapon Effects, Maxwell Taylor
[Book #81035]
Price: $25.00