M28 Davy Crockett: The U.S. Military Packed A Nuclear Weapon Into A ‘Rifle’
ByPeter Suciu Published24 hours ago
The words “nuclear weapon” and “small” typically don’t go together – and no one would consider the devastation that such a device could unleash to be small by any stretch of the imagination. Yet, during the Cold War, the United States Army developed what was actually the smallest weapon in the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) nuclear arsenal.
It was the M28/29 Davy Crockett, essentially a recoilless rifle system that could be operated by a three-man crew.
At the time, the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force maintained America’s strategic nuclear arsenal of long-range bombers as well as submarine and land-based ballistic missiles, while Army focused on the development and deployment of tactical nuclear weapons for possible use on the battlefield. Beginning in the 1950s, the Army developed a number of unguided rockets, guided missiles, artillery shells, demolition charges, and other systems that could be used to carry nuclear warheads, with yields ranging from a fraction of kiloton to a few megatons.
https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/09/m28-davy-crockett-the-u-s-military-packed-a-nuclear-weapon-into-a-rifle/
