The mentation of mutually assured demolition in the form of planetary nuclear annihilation made loss leader on both sides of the Iron Curtain squeamish . But , circumscribed nuclear state of war , now there was a programme ! Irradiating the soviet just a little number , you know , as a baulk , was seen as the clearly superior option to straight-out ICBM fusillade .
To that end , the US armed services began sharply explore the exercise of very small , “ tactical ” warheads in the late 1960 ’s . These micro - atomic warhead would be capable of being drive home by conventional weapon systems like a Howitzer or set on a timer by Special Forces teams to turn any battlefield into an obliterated irradiated wasteland . And that ’s where the B-54 SADM comes in .
The Special Atomic Demolition Munition ( SADM ) , which debuted in 1964 , were suitcase - sized nuclear weapon plan specifically to stop any potential Soviet advance through Europe . NATO - penis state or not , these portable nukes would act as virulent , radioactive barriers , not only deny submission but also crush resupply communication routes as well as put down vital infrastructure such as decametre , king plants , and bridge . Even ally substructure was fair game if it meant the Soviets would n’t get their hands on it .
Despite the diminutive size , the bomb calorimeter ’s W54 payload drive home between 10 tons and 1 kiloton of TNT ’s worth of destructive force . The problem was , however , that these weapons system also swear on inferior mechanical timers ( which were n’t affected by EMP blasts ) that could detonate anywhere from 8 second early to 13 minute tardily . And when you ’re hunt from a Hiroshima - sized blast , that 21 hour energizing window is terrifyingly blanket subject . [ Business Insider – Military Images – Wiki–3AD ]
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