SEAL SADM portable nuclear weapon - photo

[Altair]

A US Navy SEAL operator jumping with a man-portable Special Atomic Demolition Munition (SADM). Developed in the 1960s, SADMs weigh around 51 lbs. (23 kg) and had yields ranging from 10 tons to 1 kiloton.

Fullsize image: https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net...e_fullsize.jpg



Previously:

M28/M29 tactical nuclear recoilless gun - photo and video
Orange Herald nuclear device - photo
The Gadget nuclear device - photo and video
Extinguishing an oil well fire using a nuke - GIF
Creating a lake using a hydrogen bomb - video

[jdurand]

I saw Slim Pickens do that in a movie

[clavius]

I read a book that included some interviews with guys who had trained as SEALs in the use of these things, doing jumps with dummy bombs, toting them around and studying where to place them to do the most damage. Apparently the idea was that this cool new bomb could give a one or two man team the ability to utterly destroy and take out very large structures like dams or large bridges. I recall he said something to the effect that they were viewed as just extra powerful demolition charges by the top level planners, but that all of the guys like him training to deploy them knew that they would be being sent on a suicide mission but just chose not to talk about it.

Years ago worked with a guy who was in the army national guard in the mid 1970s. He was some sort of materials and logistics guy. He said that on the list of stuff issued to his unit was some sort of battlefield nuclear weapon that was mounted on a trailer to be towed into place with a jeep and detonated by use of a control box at the end of a really long wire. He said that he never actually saw the thing or saw anything that indicated where it was stored, nor did he know anyone in his unit (or maybe would admit to it) that had either but that they all agreed that it was probably not one of the better ideas that the army ever had.

[mklotz]

Yes, we really do want you to strap a nuke between your legs and jump out of an airplane!

Another military genius idea relegated to the dustbin of history, along with the thermonuclear hand grenade and the supersonic blimp.

[Frank S]

military genius? I would have to say that term is more of a myth than Military Intelligence. I once spent the better part of a month driving a Visiting Bird Col. from the States, A Major and a SGT Major around Germany through out the dead of night to various radar and missile sites. Always driving the smallest back roads possible never going directly to any single site and sometimes taking as much as 5 hours to drive to a site which was less than 25 Km from where we started Only I wasn't supposed to know where we were at. After the detail was complete I told the Bird that the next time they needed to inspect the site he might want to choose a PFC who had just barely arrived in country instead of a SGT who had been there for 3 years if their intent was to keep the locations of the sites unknown to the driver. I told him I could have driven them to every one of those sites in 3 nights and allowed them a 30 minute inspection of each one of them. The col told me that the Major had told him those were the most direct routes. Maybe the Major should have clued me in on his little scheme to pull the wool over the Bird's eyes because I could have taken them on some routes through the forests that would have even gotten most locals disorientated

[clavius]

Yes, we really do want you to strap a nuke between your legs and jump out of an airplane!

Another military genius idea relegated to the dustbin of history, along with the thermonuclear hand grenade and the supersonic blimp.

Indeed. It's fortunate that those did finally end up in that dustbin I suppose.
But now that you clued me in on the idea, I kind of want a supersonic blimp.

[trigger]

Nah won't work seal have big balls nowhere to strap on a nuke ,just saying

[Gadgeteer]

I saw Slim Pickens do that in a movie

Dr. Strangelove

[markonevet]

This SADM mission was an Army Special Forces mission that was discontinued, because the soldier couldn't on foot get away from the detonation area and if captured, we have given away a nuclear weapon to an enemy, that simple.