Declassified U.S. Nuclear Test Film #27

0800027 - Operation Argus - 1958 - 44:40 - Color (Sanitized) - Operation Argus was a series of three high-altitude nuclear tests conducted by the Atomic Energy Commission in the South Atlantic Ocean in August and September 1958. The results of Operation Argus proved the validity of the Christofilos theory.

This theory proposed that a radiation belt is created in the upper regions of the Earths atmosphere by high-altitude detonations. The radiation belt affects radio and radar transmissions, damages or destroys the arming and fuzing mechanisms of Intercontinental Ballistic Missile warheads, and endangers crews of orbiting space vehicles that might enter the belt.

The tests, conducted in complete secrecy, were not announced until the following year. Low-yield devices were carried to an altitude of approximately 300 miles by rockets before being detonated.

More than 4,500 military personnel and civilian scientists participated in the test operation.

The tests comprising 1958 Operation Argus were as follows:

ARGUS I, August 27, South 38.5 degrees, West 11.5 degrees, South Atlantic, rocket, weapons effects, 1-2 kt
ARGUS II, August 30, South 49.5 degrees, West 8.2 degrees, South Atlantic, rocket, weapons effects, 1-2 kt
ARGUS III, September 6, South 48.5 degrees, West 9.7 degrees, South Atlantic, rocket, weapons effects, 1-2 kt

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

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

[btyabear]

This is very interesting. I was a member of this operation. I was on the command ship, USS Tarawa CVS40. We were never told what we were doing, but some of us put it together and knew it was just as described in this film. It is reassuring to find out you were correct. I wonder what was withheld, and why?

[masterchief377]

Awesome video dude. I feel like some top secret engineer or something.

How did you get a hold of these by the way?

[wardenphil]

@btyabear I think he secrecy was due to the fact that these tests were to evaluate a potentially huge vulnerability in our defense system. We didn't want to give the Russian's any more of a "head's up" than we had to.

[MrGranousty]

What about Tristan da Cunha people, directly on the radioactive cloud trajectory?

[prostreet2]

let the world end by radiation !! lol

[BigWhiteTurkey]

I watched this. Actually, interesting, from a students perspective.

[ZZSFAN]

If you're wathcing this, you're fired.

[bladerunnerkw]

@btyabear "Well Done" from a former crewmember of the second USS TARAWA (LHA-1) and later an IHAWK surface-to-air missile Tactical Control Assistant. It might interest you to know that in the 80's although we only had conventional HE warheads we still had missile counter lamps for "SP" rounds (Special=nuke). I was 2 yrs old when you were aboard Tarawa and my father working for Admiral Mustin, so not only grew up under the threat of MAD but ended up being a Cold Warrior myself so many years later

[jjjooommm222]

Thanks for the video. I'm surprised how low-level the introduction and discussion is for a classified experimental report. Do our miliatry commanders really need to be taught about magnetic field lines and such first-year physics? I guess to be an officer you generally don't need anything, at most, but a college degree in someting- not necessarily anything useful.

[puncheex]

This was one of the brainchildren of the polymath, Nicholas Christofilos, a Greek-American physicist. It was considered to be too sensitive to treat as not secret, because it used air space over many nations and because it is, as conceived, a ballistic missile defense. Not to speak of the possibility of one of the rockets landing in one of the countries around the S Atlantic.

[Frequent2001]

hazing!

[kakabukkake0]

@btyabear holy crap! amazing to hear you were a part of this obscure nuclear test, weird that the told you guys absolutely nothing, I guess it was all "need to know" information at the time-