Tag: military

5 Times the United States Almost Nuked Itself

Oops. Presenting 5 times the United States almost nuked itself.

Unites States Nuked

The threat of a nuclear explosion in the United States was at its height between World War 2 and the Cold War with Russia. But what if the closest America actually ever came to nuclear destruction was at its own hand?

This compilation of five accidents is the result of military airplane crashes, dangerous science experiments, pilot error and a simple dropped wrench. The crash of a B-52 bomber over Goldsboro, North Carolina saw the release of an atomic bomb over American soil, as did the Mars Bluff incident involving a nuclear-armed B-47 bomber. Both lost nuclear weapons were recovered from those broken arrow incidents, but the same can’t be said for the 1958 accident involving a collision between a B-47 and F-86 fighter jet. That nuclear bomb was lost forever off the coast of Georgia.

Other incidents include the plutonium Demon Core experiments that resulted in chain reactions which killed several nuclear scientists at the Los Alamos National Lab, and the Van Buren ICBM accident in which a nuclear warhead was ejected from a massive missile explosion.

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Check Out The Enourmous Ekranoplan That The Soviet Union Intended To Use As A Nuclear Weapons Transport

Ekranoplane 2

One of the largest “planes” ever built, the KM was designed by Russia as a high speed military transport. Taking it’s first flight in 1966, the ekranoplan was later revealed to the world by American sky satellites which showed a strange aircraft bearing the letters “KM” on its fuselage. The CIA named it the “Kaspian Monster”, though KM actually referred to “Korabl maket” – “prototype ship” in Russian.

Ekranoplane 2

One of the largest “planes” ever built, the KM was designed by Russia as a high speed military transport. Taking it’s first flight in 1966, the ekranoplan was later revealed to the world by American sky satellites which showed a strange aircraft bearing the letters “KM” on its fuselage. The CIA named it the “Kaspian Monster”, though KM actually referred to “Korabl maket” – “prototype ship” in Russian.

Ekranoplane 1

It is classified as an ekranoplan as opposed to an airplane because it uses an aerodynamic principle known as ground effect to fly 3-5 meters above the sea. Only one prototype was ever constructed, though the Soviets had planned to use a fleet to transport equipment, including nuclear weapons, around the Caspian Sea and Black Sea.

Documented a a marine vessel, the KM could reach speeds up to 400 mph. The KM was tested at the Caspian Sea for 15 years until a crash in 1980. The only model ever produced, the MD-160, was retired in the late 1990s and now sits rusting at a naval station in Kaspiysk.

Source: English Russia