Declassified U.S. Nuclear Test Film #43

0800043 - 1962 Pacific Nuclear Tests - 1962 - 21:15 - Color - "Polaris underway with a nuclear warhead," is the narrators description of the first of a two-part video. Joint Task Force 8, made up primarily of Department of Defense and Atomic Energy Commission representatives, was responsible for the upcoming test.

The video shows the preparations, installation of safety monitoring and diagnostic equipment, placement of test and observation vessels, and the actual nuclear test of a Fleet Ballistic Missile. Participating in the test were personnel aboard the aircraft carrier Yorktown, the destroyer Norton Sound, and the submarine Carbonero.

The May 6, 1962, date loomed for the nuclear detonation FRIGATE BIRD, part of the Operation Dominic/Nougat test series. The test was conducted approximately 525 miles from Christmas Island, the nearest land mass, at coordinates for ground zero of North 4 degrees 50 minutes, West 149 degrees 25 minutes. The submerged submarine Ethan Allen, carrying 16 Polaris missiles, launched the missile, and the warhead detonated on target, giving the cameras and viewers a spectacular scene. The narrator closes: "Polaris on target. . .with design yield and full service." The yield has not been announced, but it was enough to shake the crew of the submarine Carbonero for several seconds.

The second part of the video shows an antisubmarine rocket (ASROC) underwater nuclear weapons-effects test, described as another proof test of a Navy nuclear weapon system. It was configured as a nuclear depth charge. The video shows the preparations, placement of diagnostic devices, safety precautions, and other activities performed in readiness for the test. The SWORDFISH test was conducted approximately 370 miles southwest of San Diego at North 31 degrees 14 minutes, West 124 degrees 13 minutes. It has a reported yield of less than 20 kilotons.

The ASROC was launched from the destroyer Agerholmn on May 11, 1962. Its target was a raft circled by diagnostic devices. The ASROC is shown flying for a short time before entering the water and detonating at a predetermined depth. The explosive force created a one-mile radius radioactive base surge, and it engulfed a target ship. Once the initial base surge subsided, a second plume was created from the detonation bubble, plummeting tons of water. The cameras captured sensational footage of the blast effects. The submarine Razorback, submerged at periscope level 2.5 miles from ground zero, is shown being tossed around. The full sequence of the nuclear depth bomb deployment is shown.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Nukes
• Nuclear
• weapons
• WMD
• radiation
• radioactive
• testing
• warhead
• downwinders
• atomic
• cancer

[mdma4life]

@cobrachoppergirl

Rip a hole in space-time?

You know NOTHING about science of any kind do you?

Our sun undergoes fusion and fission at energies FARRRRR lower then we've achieved with weapons. and the sun is a small star to boot.

Damn kids thinking they can just say whatever they want without having any clue

[vanvalldrey]

0:42 epic propellerhead

[saultube44]

Teenagers playing with explosives, young and stupid, at least we have passed that and haven't killed ourselves.

[fudgetone]

@sw8741 Of course there would have been no other way it could have been produced, all of man's achievements are the fruits of war, we should all blow up the world with the latest weapons so that we might advance as a race. Any more doomsday worship you might be able to drum up for us?

[ralucagymnast]

Very spectacular effects; the ASROC in particular was very aesthetically pleasing. These weapons, although deadly, produced some unbelievably amazing sights, a "deadly beauty" indeed.

[sw8741]

@dougmahone it amazes me how ignorant people are. they really have no clue how the world today has benefited from all the defense spending of the last 70 yrs. all of the electronic devices today owe its existence to defense spending. its what made integrated circuits possible. i can't imagine someone walking around with a vacuum tube ipod. i know....what is a vacuum tube?? no its not an attachment to your vacuum cleaner! geezzzzzzzzzzz

[daveeyes]

Possibly it could drip a hole into space/time? :-)

Ooops. No, that's my coffee percolator.

[dantheman9758]

@Spionsilver Cancer is a collective term used to describe a bunch unrelated diseases. I hope you don't think that the nuclear age is/was in any way related to the origins of diseases we call cancer... Cancers of all types existed long before a bomb ever went off, whether we knew it or not. So has radiation.

[dafrickinchicken]

@GRAHAMAUS NOOOOOO!!!!!! THE FIRST TIME IT WAS USED IN WAR WAS in 1945 THE MANHATTON PROJECT WAS BEFORE THAT!!!!!!!

[JetMechMA]

"Impossible"

[Spionsilver]

anybody wonders where lung breast vaginal prostate stomach skin blood or any other sort of cancer is coming from..



[mechanizmz]

@vanvalldrey Haha... I lol'd